Newly-minted Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas on Friday, alongside former ICE Director Tom Homan and Congresswoman Mayra Flores for a panel hosted by Townhall’s Julio Rosas, where Lake discusses why she thinks she won the nomination.
The former television news anchor laid out her plan for the state of Arizona, with a focus on border safety.
Lake was greeted by a crowd chanting her name, after days of potential shenanigans at the Arizona voting booths that saw results delayed for two full days. Lake heads for the general election this fall against the Democratic incumbent.
“We’re not going to sit here with Joe Biden rolling out the welcome mat to the whole world. We can’t accept people illegally like this. Nobody in Arizona wants an open border, they don’t want fentanyl pouring in, they don’t want the cartels in control of the border, we want safety on our streets and security, and we’re going to do that for the people of Arizona on day one.”
Lake told the panel that she won the nomination because she’s promising the strongest border security plan that the US “has ever seen.” She said that the US needed to designate the situation at the southern border as an “emergency.”
Lake quoted Article 1 section 10 of the constitution which says that states could protect their own borders if under attack, invasion, or in imminent danger.
“We can’t wait for Joe Biden,” said Lake. She said that she will send Arizona National Guard troops to the border as soon as she’s sworn in and s
“We’re not going to sit here with Joe Biden rolling out the welcome mat to the whole world. We can’t accept people illegally like this. Nobody in Arizona wants an open border, they don’t want fentanyl pouring in, they don’t want the cartels in control of the border, we want safety on our streets and security, and we’re going to do that for the people of Arizona on day one.”
“I believe they are the enemy of the people, as President Trump says. They’re lying to us, in Arizona they’re not covering the border well, I know some of the national outlets might be down there. They’re more interested in covering school board meetings where they’re calling moms and dads terrorists rather than the real narco-terrorists at the border.
“We have to start treating the cartels as terrorists, and we’re going to start kicking them out, putting them on no-fly lists and taking away any of their earnings to help build the wall, frankly.”
“The media’s more interested in attacking the good men and women who are running for office who care about this country than attacking people who are trying to invade our country and pedal drugs and poison our children with these drugs, and frankly, let’s remember the humanitarian angle. These people coming across… these people are going to be indentured servants to the cartels, that’s not how we operate in America, and I’m not okay with that,” said Lake.
“We have a very complex border, it’s different than Texas and it’s going to take one strong governor to get in there and say we’ll take care of the problem. We’re going to ask other states to help us out. What happens in Arizona when it comes to the border doesn’t remain in Arizona, it goes everywhere. And everywhere I go, people say ‘build the wall and secure the border,’ and we will do that. We think that the states can come in, we’re going to ask for their help, we’ll have an inter-state pact, if they can get their National Guard to help us out, if they can send resources, we’ll work with them and together we will get our border secure.
“Eventually, the other border states will then start to do the same thing. I’m not a fan of bussing here illegally into other cities. It makes for a cute photo op, but it just takes people who shouldn’t be here and moves them further in. I think we should take the busses and drive them to the border, and send them back the other way. We can’t have everybody coming in,” Lake said.
