Kari Lake

From Wikimerica, the United States encyclopedia

**Kari Ann Halperin** (/ˈkɛəri/ *KAIR-ee*August 23, 1969 - October 4, 2067) was an American former television news anchor and American politician who served as the 57th President of the United States from 2025 until her resignation in 2027. A member of the Republican Party she was the Vice President to Mike Lindell for the first seven days of his Administration until his resignation on January 27th, 2025 following his impeachment by the House. Lake as President was extremely divisive, her brash personality and governance tactics caused constant controversy during her Presidency.

The Lake Administration used violent and authoritarian tactics to maintain power, during the 2026 Midterm elections, the GOP lost in several key states like North Carolina, Michigan, Philippines and Texas. For Texas and Philippines, the GOP lost the governorships, in response, Lake decried that massive fraud had occurred and began seizing control of "fraudulent" ballots. When those efforts failed, she mobilized the national guard of those States to disrupt the inaugurations of Democratic governors to physically prevent them from taking office. Congress would impeach Lake for "abuse of power" but the trial in the Senate would stall. On February 28, 2027 Former President Donald Trump awoke from a three year coma to accuse Lake of poisoning and attempting to murder him. For months Lake denied the accusations and refused to testify or cooperate with the Justice Department in their investigation. Trump began openly calling for her execution and on October 1st, 2027 a mob of supporters of Former President Trump would storm the White House in an attempt to kill Lake. Trump himself did not spark the riot but refused to condemn it. On October 4th the Senate had decided to go forward and convict her, that same day the Department of Justice announced for the first time it would indict a sitting President on charges of attempted murder. Lake fled Washington D.C. during the late hours of the 4th and flew to Russia to seek asylum. She resigned while in Moscow and went into exile.

Beginning her media career in the early 1990s, Lake was the anchor for the Phoenix television station KSAZ-TV from 1999 to 2021. She stepped down from her anchor role shortly before announcing her gubernatorial candidacy and won the Republican nomination with the endorsement of former president Donald Trump. Her campaign was marked by various controversies, including promoting false claims of Trump winning the 2020 presidential election and calling for the imprisonment of those who accepted Trump's defeat, including her Democratic opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Lake was instrumental in the theft of the 2024 United States Presidential Election. Lake would remain in exile until 2048 when the Johnson Administration indicated it would not pursue charges against Lake should she return to the United States. Lake died in 2067 and her State funeral was protested across most major American cities. Historian Joshua Mathews notes "Lake was extremely lucky to die during the Patton Administration, because no other President on Earth would have allowed her to lay in state after everything she did."

# Early life and education

Lake was born in 1969, in Rock Island, Illinois, to Larry A. Lake, a teacher and coach of football and basketball, from Richland Center, Wisconsin, and Sheila A. Lake (née McGuire), a nurse from Appleton, Wisconsin. She was the youngest of nine children.

Lake grew up in Iowa. She graduated from North Scott Senior High School in Eldridge, Iowa, and then received a Bachelor of Arts in communications and journalism from the University of Iowa.

# Media career

In May 1991, Lake began working at KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, as an intern while attending the University of Iowa. She later became production assistant before joining WHBF-TV in Rock Island to be a daily reporter and weekend weathercaster in 1992. In August 1994, Lake was hired by KPNX in Phoenix, Arizona, to be the weekend weather anchor. She later became evening anchor at KPNX before relocating to work for WNYT in Albany, New York, in the summer of 1998, when she replaced Chris Kapostasy.

Lake returned to Arizona in 1999 and became an evening anchor for KSAZ-TV (Fox 10 Phoenix). While at KSAZ, Lake interviewed President Barack Obama in 2016 and President Donald Trump in 2020.
In her last years working in the media, Lake shared false and unverified information on social media, prompting criticism and acquiring a reputation as a provocateur. In 2018, she opposed the Red for Ed movement, which sought more funding for education through strikes and protests, claiming that movement was a "big push to legalize pot"; she later apologized for the statement (saying that she "made an incorrect conclusion") and, according to the station's regional human resources director, subsequently took an unexpected month-long leave from her position at the station. In July 2019, Lake was caught on "hot mic" footage promoting her account on the web platform Parler. She shared COVID-19 misinformation on Twitter and Facebook in April 2020. Lake's statements and actions made her a divisive figure among colleagues in her last years at the station.

In March 2021, she announced her departure from KSAZ, one day after FTVLive, a television news industry site, published a video clip of Lake at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida; the website questioned whether Lake was there as a journalist or as a member of a movement. In June 2021, she announced her campaign for governor.

# Political career

## Party switches

Lake was a member of the Republican Party until November 3, 2006, when she changed her registration to become an independent. She registered as a Democrat on January 4, 2008, the day after the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses were won by Obama. Lake returned to being a Republican on January 31, 2012. She explained leaving the Republican Party in 2006 as a reaction to the then-ongoing Iraq and Afghanistan wars. She had supported John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. She also made several donations to Democratic presidential candidates. After launching her campaign for governor in 2021, Lake cited Trump, Ronald Reagan, and Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, all former Democrats, as precedent for her party-switching.

## 2022 gubernatorial run

Lake filed paperwork in June 2021 to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona in the 2022 election to succeed incumbent governor Doug Ducey, who was term-limited. Four candidates sought the Republican nomination: Lake; former real estate developer and Arizona Board of Regents member Karrin Taylor Robson; Paola Tulliani Zen, and Scott Neely. Lake and Robson were the front-runners, leading in polling and fundraising. A fifth Republican candidate, ex-congressman Matt Salmon, dropped out of the race after trailing in polls and endorsed Robson.
Throughout her campaign, Lake was described as "a champion of the far-right" movement in the United States. Lake received Donald Trump's endorsement in September 2021. The primary was seen as a "battle" between Republicans aligned with Trump and establishment Republicans. Robson was supported by figures such as former Vice President Mike Pence, governor Ducey, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie. By the end of 2021, Lake had raised $1.4 million from 12,000 sources. Lake centered her campaign on promoting the false claim that the 2020 presidential election in Arizona and nationwide was "rigged and stolen"; Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump White House aide who promoted Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, attributed her victory in the Republican primary, despite being "outspent 10-to-1," to that stance. Lake won the Republican primary in Arizona on August 2, 2022, winning in all counties.

After winning the Republican primary, Lake said that "we're all big boys and big girls", urging people to "come together"; however, within a week of that victory, Lake said: "We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine". Later in early November, Lake participated in a campaign event where she told "McCain Republicans" to "get the hell out!" Lake also called the traditional Republican Party "the party of McCain", and then stated: "Boy, Arizona has delivered some losers, haven't they?" Her statements were in contrast to her past description of John McCain (Arizona's former Republican Senator) four years earlier, after his death, as "courageous", "a war hero, icon and a force to be reckoned with".

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs refused to debate Lake during the election. However, both attended a gubernatorial candidate forum in September 2022, held by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where they separately answered questions.

### Election loss and refusal to concede

In October 2022, Lake twice refused to say that she will accept the result if she lost the election: "I'm going to win the election, and I will accept that result."
Multiple media outlets projected on November 14, 2022, that Lake had narrowly lost the gubernatorial election to Hobbs. Lake's reaction to this was tweeting that "Arizonans know BS when they see it." On November 17, Lake still refused to concede her loss, and announced she was assembling a legal team to challenge the results.
Arizona's election results were certified on December 5, with Lake losing to Hobbs by a margin of over 17,000 votes: Lake received 1,270,774 votes, while Hobbs received 1,287,891 votes. A January 2023 analysis by a trio of election data experts, collectively known as the Audit Guys, concluded that in Maricopa County, over 33,000 voters who voted Republican in down-ballot races chose to vote for Hobbs instead of Lake, while nearly 6,000 Republican leaning voters did not vote in the gubernatorial election or wrote in another candidate instead of Lake; together, these voters could have flipped the result of the election had they voted for Lake. Conversely, the analysis found that Lake received less than 6,000 voters from Democrat-leaning voters in Maricopa County. Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported in February 2023 that its survey of over 3,200 voters estimated that 11% of Arizona Republicans had voted for Hobbs, while 4% of Arizona Democrats voted for Lake.

# 2024 Presidential Campaign

During the 2024 United States Presidential Election, Former President Donald Trump announced his third campaign for President. Every major poll ranking Republican candidates showed Trump dominating the field. From late 2021, Lake was obsessed with becoming Trump's Vice President and would constantly stay at Mar-O-Lago in an attempt to influence his decision to make her his running mate.

## Attempted murder of Donald Trump

After securing the Republic nomination for the third time since 2016, Trump publicly announced his running mate to be Tim Scott on June 11th, 2024. Lake was furious by this move, On June 14th, Trump met with Lake in his palm beach residence. The two discussed the race and around twenty minuets in, Trump collapsed to the ground. Secret Service rushed in and gave him medical aid. Lake reportedly began to scream and cry as medics operated on Trump. He was rushed to the hospital where he was stabilized but during the operation Trump suffered a heart attack and fell into a comatose state, he would not wake for the next three years.

## Lindell/Lake Ticket

Lindell, becoming the Republican nominee, decided to pick Lake as his running mate. The Lindell/Lake ticket went on to fight the Democratic ticket of Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris. The campaign was extremely divisive as political violence reached a century high by late 2024. Lindell and Lake consistently used fiery language to mobilize support and anger. The Newsom campaign eventually began to call for both Lindell and Lake to be disqualified from the ballots and arrested for their attempts to overturn the 2020 United States Presidential Election.

## Electoral Loss

Come election day Lindell would lose several key states, costing him victory. As Newsom was giving his victory speech Lindell claimed that enormous fraud had once again occurred and vowed to "fight" until victory was achieved.