Ruben Gallego Courteously Engages At Airport With Frothing Unhinged Imaginary Gov Kari Lake
We didn't realize Ruben Gallego is a goddamned saint.
Kari Lake, currently the imaginary governor of Arizona, filed actual paperwork last week to run for US Senate against incumbent Kyrsten Sinema of the Sinema Party. Sinema’s popularity doesn’t extend much further than her own mirror, so Lake would have a good shot at unseating her. Fortunately, Democrat Ruben Gallego — a normal person — is also running and is ahead in most polls.
Lake is set to officially launch her campaign today, and she’s already treating Gallego like he’s the incumbent. She tagged him in an article she shared about President Joe Biden waiving federal law to permit construction of a border wall in south Texas. Although that is presumably what she wants, she accused Gallego of “facilitating an invasion.”
Gallego must’ve noticed they were on the same plane to Phoenix, because he quickly responded, “Hey @KariLake, we’re on the same plane! Just come back from first class to coach and we can chat. Happy to walk you through all my legislative work to deliver key resources to AZ’s border communities.”
Once they’d landed, Lake bum-rushed her future opponent at the airport. She was sort of like the MAGA Michael Moore — fully mic’ed and with a camera crew and everything.
In this video from the Daily Caller, it almost looks as if Lake blocked Gallego on his way to the restroom. If so, he showed her a tremendous amount of civility, though he does cast her some well-deserved shade: “We met once,” he said, “when you were still on TV.”
Lake was a Phoenix TV anchor from 1999 to 2021, when she quit to pursue her career in political demagoguery and nuisance lawsuits. Gallego, meanwhile, has worked in Arizona politics since 2009 and served in the US House since 2015. He is a serious candidate. Lake is a political shock jock, perhaps more telegenic than Rush Limbaugh, and she is still likely to cream any Republican primary challengers.
Gallego politely told Lake he’s looking forward to a “great race,” but she instead predicted a “knock-down, drag out” spectacle, because she’s the same low-class hack who danced on the late John McCain’s grave.
Lake went on about how the “borders are wide open” (they aren’t). Gallego tried to engage this creep on the issues but she preferred to talk over him and rant about how we have “plenty of people here” already (NO NEW IMMIGRANTS!) and fentanyl is running loose in the streets.
“Under President Trump we had a secure border,” she said. That’s just an absurd lie. MAGA cultists insist that Trump magically fixed the border crisis and it all went to hell once Joe Biden took office. This is the partisan “light-switch” view of politics, where everything is either horrible or miserable depending on whether your preferred party is in power.
“I look forward to working together if we can,” Gallego said graciously, “and obviously I look forward to having more conversations about this.”
“Oh, we’re gonna have conversations,” Lake countered, and when Gallego suggested having “civil” conversations, she said, “Absolutely, but you know what’s not civil? People dying on the streets.”
OK, there were a reported 28,466 fentanyl-related deaths in 2017, the first year of Trump’s reign of terror. Yes, that number had steadily increased throughout Barack Obama’s second term, but it’s not as if Trump’s policies stopped the alarming rise. Fentanyl deaths had almost doubled to 56,516 in 2020. In 2022, 73,654 people died from a fentanyl overdose in the US, but 2022 also had the smallest year-over-year growth at 4.3 percent.
But forgive me for briefly assuming Lake actually cares about facts or is genuinely concerned for the people suffering from the opioid crisis.
Lake kept trying to bash Gallego’s district, which he repeatedly reminded her was in Arizona, the state they both wish to represent. It’s a good way of turning this back on Republicans who smear “Democrat-run” cities and areas as if they’re famine-wracked, war-torn failed states and not part of the United States.
Perhaps the lowest point of the exchange is when Lake told someone who greeted her that Gallego “wants to destroy our country. He really does.” He really doesn’t, and it’s unfortunate that such low blows are now politics as usual from Republicans.
After ending her filibuster lie-athon, Lake said, “I’m gonna beat you and we’re gonna save Arizona.”
Technically, Lake has to beat Sinema, who’s not yet declared that she’s running but I’m sure she’ll make a big scene of it. I doubt Sinema would’ve stopped to talk with Lake — that’s more time than she’s spent with any of her constituents. However, Lake’s complete disregard for the truth and the way she steamrolls through conversations only further supports Gov. Katie Hobbs’ decision not to publicly debate her. I’m loathe to suggest Gallego model himself in any way after Sinema, but Lake is arguably one constituent Gallego is best off ignoring.
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"Just come back from first class to coach and we can chat."
OK, this guy is good.
“We met once,” he said, “when you were still on TV.”
ooooh! straight in the pancake makeup.