Greg Stanton Hammers Kari Lake For 'Lies'—Shen She Fires Back And Sparks Fly

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At today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) confronted Voice of America Director Kari Lake.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Ms. Slake, your actions as senior advisor are eroding American

00:05soft power around the globe. We should not be dismantling the agency that combats propaganda

00:10from the Chinese Communist Party, the Kremlin, and Tehran. Especially now, we need to be

00:15able to broadcast facts that counter Iranian state-run media spin that is essential to

00:20America's long-term interests. Your job is to tell the people of the world the truth

00:27about America. And because of that, there's a more fundamental issue I want to address today,

00:33and that is character. You see, Ms. Slake, we have both been public figures in Arizona for a long

00:39time. I've seen you in action, including your behavior in the last two elections. And let me

00:47be clear about something. The American people cannot believe a word you say. You ran for governor in

00:55Arizona in 2022. You lost fair and square. Instead of conceding, you embarrassed yourself and our state

01:05by lying again and again for years, blaming everything under the sun for your loss, except for

01:13your own toxic politics. You lie about that election to this very day. You lied about signatures on mail-in

01:22ballots not matching those on file. Proven wrong. You lied about ballots being intentionally misprinted

01:28and then rejected in Republican areas. Total BS. You lied and said hundreds of thousands of ballots

01:34were mishandled. Zero evidence. You claimed fake ballots were snuck into batches before they were

01:40counted. Come on. You repeated these lies again and again. And you've said even recently, quote,

01:48I am the duly elected governor. They just stole it, unquote. Give me a break. Ms. Slake, your new role

01:57requires you to tell the truth. For decades, whenever authoritarians and dictators suppressed the people

02:03and claimed victory in fraudulent elections, Voice of America countered those lies. I can't imagine how

02:09people fighting for democracy today and around the world can trust someone who has so shamelessly lied

02:16about her own election. Will the gentleman yield for the question? No, I will not. Ms. Slake, to regain

02:22a semblance of your credibility. I will not yield. Ms. Slake, to regain a semblance of your credibility.

02:27The gentleman's time, if you did not yield. I did not yield and I'd like the time back. Ms. Slake,

02:36to regain a semblance of your credibility, are you finally ready to admit you lost the 2022 Arizona election?

02:44It saddens me that you are from Arizona and you're okay with it. That's a yes or no question, Ms.

02:50Lake. It saddens me that you are from Arizona. I think the answer is no. Reclaiming my time.

02:54The gentleman will suspend. We'll stop the clock. For all present, members are reminded to avoid

03:02engaging in personality toward the president and other members. Okay. And this is a member of the

03:11administration. So I would caution all to stay on the subjects and stay off of personalities.

03:18I'd love to. Please. The gentleman may continue. Yes. And in this case, these are adjudicated lies.

03:24Courts of law have determined that these are lies. These are not me saying it. You didn't just lie to

03:30the press. The courts are really awesome right now. You took those lies to court and lost again and again.

03:34Every one of your lawsuits failed. And a federal judge said that you were furthering false narratives that

03:39blamelessly undermine public trust. And you didn't just lie. You were formally sanctioned by the court.

03:46Ms. Lake, you have been sanctioned twice for providing false information to courts. Isn't that true? Yes or no?

03:52I was brave enough to fight our shoddy elections and the courts have not caught up.

03:58That was a yes or no. I guess the answer is no. Let me reclaim my time.

04:02You have been sanctioned by both the United States District Court and the Arizona Supreme Court for

04:08quote, making false factual statements to the court. And you were sued for defamation

04:13by a Republican election official, Stephen Richer. He and his family were subjected to harassment and

04:20even death threats because of those lies. You told your supporters, Richer and fellow Republican

04:26County supervisor, Bill Gates, that they quote, sabotaged election day. You accused them of

04:32deliberately printing the wrong image on ballots to jam tabulators and injecting hundreds of thousands

04:39of phony ballots. What a joke. And here's the thing, Ms. Lake, when it came down to it,

04:46you chickened out. You refused to defend those lies in court. You decided to take a default judgment.

04:53You are an adjudicated liar and a two time political loser in Arizona. I have one final

05:01question. I'd like to take down those. It's the general. It's the general. I do not. I have one

05:07final question for you. I have one final question. The general lady will suspend, please. Go ahead.

05:14You lost for governor in 2022 to Katie Hobbs. You lost even worse to Ruben Gallego for Senate in 2024.

05:22Well, Arizona has another election for governor next year. Will you do us all a favor and run it

05:29back and run for governor again? I yield. No more questions? Can I respond to some of that?

05:35Because that was complete insanity. I wish I could yield back the last five minutes of my life,

05:41actually. And I want to apologize to the people of Arizona that we have somebody who's representing

05:46the folks in one of our great parts of the valley that doesn't care about the integrity of our

05:52election. But you weren't here. You came in late. And we're talking about USAGM today, the agency for

05:59global media, and how they can put out absolute abject lies. And we can't control any, we have no say

06:06over what the editorial content is. And I would hope that you would not be okay with that. They could

06:11literally put out a lie about anybody here. And I know you've been the victim of that. I know you've

06:16been the victim. I remember the stories about you, where they said you had a gay lover. And

06:23those were going- Mr. Chairman, I hope you honor what you just gave as a caution to everyone. And

06:30I moved those words- To tell you that that, those kind of lies, and you said those were lies,

06:37those kind of lies could be broadcast today on VOA. And you couldn't pick up the phone,

06:42Representative Stanton, and call them and say, hey, you're putting out lies about me.

06:46You would not be able to do that because they would sue you for breaking the firewall.

06:50So lies are being told on Voice of America. It's inappropriate. You've been subjected to lies

06:57that you said were lies about you in the media before. And how would you like it if those

07:01lies were put on Voice of America right now? Because they could do it, and you couldn't

07:06do a thing about it. You couldn't stop it. You couldn't stop all those lies that you said

07:10were said about you if they went on Voice of America today. You'd have to sit and take it.

07:14Okay. I thank the gentlelady, and I appreciate the dialogue ruling on the member. She was responding,

07:22and I thought rather complimentary that, in fact, those were untrue, and she was defending that.

07:27That's what he says.

07:28I'll leave it as that. I think Mr. Stanton would agree that those were untrue statements,

07:33and she said so. I will now recognize myself for five minutes.

07:38Mr. Chairman.

07:38I apologize. I wasn't concerned at all what she was saying. My concern is that the leader of this

07:44agency, which is supposed to disseminate truth about the United States, is an adjudicated liar.

07:51That's not an exaggeration. That's not.

07:52Okay. The gentleman made that point quite clearly.

07:55The gentleman has said that, and that's why I brought it.

07:57Mr. Chairman, recognizing myself for five minutes.

07:59Mr. Chairman, unanimous consent. Twice so far, the chair, prior to you, had said there was no

08:05documentation for requests of meetings.

08:07Does the gentleman want to submit something?

08:09So I'd like unanimous consent that these be placed in the record. These are requests for meetings

08:13that have not been answered.

08:16Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

08:17Could I see the date on those? I mean, were those?

08:19Okay. We'll be able to make the record complete, and you'll be allowed to give the other half of

08:27these emails. For the record, we agree, unanimous consent, that these emails be entered and

08:32considered factual with the recognition that they be verified.

08:35And then, we'll be able to make the record complete, and feel more.

08:49If we can make the record complete, there will be a record complete, and then, of course,

08:51the record does not have occurred.

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