'Nothing changed': Radio host nails failed Kari Lake effort to move on from election lies

Failed Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has been trying to downplay her past false claims about her 2022 election loss to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs — but it seems she still can't help slipping back into rants about stolen elections.

The "Kari Lake Warroom" Twitter account this week highlighted a Newsmax interview that Lake gave with former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka in which she once again banged the drum about elections being "stolen" from conservatives.

"We need to have good people on the inside who are willing to stand up and make sure that our elections are run honestly," Lake said during the interview. "And we can't give up.

"I know the elections have been run poorly, I've met with people who say to me, 'Why should I vote?' You absolutely have to vote, this is not the time to quit ... we are getting the story out about what's happening, we are waking people up. ... I don't think they'll be able to pull all the same tricks that they pulled in the past."

ALSO READ: Fox PAC gave big money to key Democrats in January

Lake's interview drew the attention of Barry Markson, a talk radio host at the Phoenix-based state KTAR.

Writing on Twitter, Markson accused Lake of being deceptive when she claimed recently that she's looking only toward the future and his not eager to rehash her past claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election or the 2022 gubernatorial election.

"Oh look, Kari Lake is still spreading her fake election fraud nonsense despite telling me 24 hours before that she doesn’t talk about this anymore and she just wants to look forward not back," Markson wrote on his Twitter account. "Kari’s brand is the BIG LIE. She is extreme MAGA. Nothing has changed."

Lake is currently running for Senate in Arizona, where she has been trying to take a more moderate tone than in 2022 when she leaned into former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election being stolen.

Despite her previous loss, Lake commands significant power in the current Arizona Republican Party, which appears set to all but hand the Senate nomination to her without a serious contest. Earlier this year, state party chair Jeff DeWit was forced to resign after Lake videotaped him appearing to try to bribe her to leave the race. He maintains that Lake entrapped him.

Arizona's incumbent senator, independent Kyrsten Sinema, has not given any solid indication of whether she plans to seek another term, as her polling and fundraising have dried up since she left the Democratic Party. If she does, she will likely have to compete with both Lake and the Democratic frontrunner, Rep. Ruben Gallego.