WAIT A MINUTE ... Did Jonathan Karl Just Actually Fact-Check Kari Lake's Lying Ass?

It's you Sunday show rundown!

As early voting has begun in some states and some campaigns head to the final stretch, we are getting mixed messages as we approach an uncertain future. Let's dive right in.

Eternal Sunshine Of Liz Cheney's Optimism

On "Meet The Press," Wyoming's outgoing Congresswoman Liz Cheney was given 24 minutes to get the same questions she has answered many times before but this time from Chuck Todd (huge downgrade). But it was a brief optimistic view of the future for her party at the end of the interview that caught our attention because, sadly, it comes off as hopelessly naive and bordering on delusion.

TODD: Donald Trump ends up the nominee in 2024, you've said you're not going to be a Republican anymore. So, it implies you think the Republican Party can be saved?

CHENEY: I think that the party has either got to come back from where we are right now, which is a very dangerous and toxic place, or the party will splinter and there will be a new conservative party that rises. And if Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican Party, the party will shatter and there will be a conservative party that rises in its place.

In honor of the season finale of the "Game Of Thrones" spin-off "House Of The Dragon," we'll let Ramsay Snow answer that. Because, sorry Liz Cheney, this has always been who Republicans are . Trump just gave them permission to not give a fuck about being seen as cruel villains anymore.

With Friends Like These...

While Speaker Nancy Pelosi was on CBS's " Face The Nation " making the case for Democrats in this election, Texas (supposedly Democratic) Congressman Henry Cuellar was on "Fox News Sunday" undermining her and the party like a common Tulsi Gabbard.

When asked whether the border is secure by host Shannon Bream, Cuellar was indistinguishable from every other GOP politician who spews propaganda on Fox News.

CUELLAR: You know, first of all, no, theborder is not secure. When you have 1.7 million individuals last year, and now another 2.7, that's over 4.5 million individualsencounter at the border,plus the —if you add the getaways, that's going to be over 5 million individuals in just two years. No, theborder is secure— it'snot secured, and we've got tomake sure that we have repercussionsthere.

Are conservatives confused about what the words encountered or apprehended mean? By their very definitions, it means these individuals faced our secure border security and are being processed through the immigration system as intended. It's the literal repercussions that Cuellar insists we need. But somehow, deep down, they know this is bullshit. Which is why they add the hypothetical "got-aways" to inflate their rhetoric. It allows them to artificially inflate the numbers and undermine the fact that border security stopping people and drugs at record numbers STILL means they stopped them.

Or as the old saying goes: "If your aunt had a penis, she'd still be your aunt because we don't subscribe to transphobic bullshit 'jokes' here." But we digress ...

Kari Lake/Katie Hobbs Non-Debate Debate 3 (Sort Of)

Speaking of people who use the "got-aways" to inflate their border fearmongering , Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was on ABC's "This Week" for the third (and hopefully last) version of the indirect debates with Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs. Hobbs was mainly ignored and asked again about not debating Lake. But something different happened this time when Kari Lake was interviewed: Actual Journalism!

Playing a portion of their interview from Friday, Kari Lake was not allowed to use the special lighting and soft-focus set-up of her home studio to soften the crazy. Another change is that, unlike a debate stage or a live interview with an unprepared and maybe unwilling to pushback journalist, Lake was not only confronted on her lies during the interview but ABC News also fact-checked her after. For every unsubstantiated claim, Jonathan Karl provided the real facts. So, what was shown was actually informative rather than a passive vessel for lies to go unchallenged.

During the interview, Lake did subtly hint at what her claim of fraud will be in the event she loses the election.

KARL: Why it is that you have not said — or maybe you'll do it now — you have not said that you will accept the certified results of this election even if you lose this election?

LAKE: I will accept the results of this election if we have a fair, honest and transparent election, absolutely, 100 percent.

KARL: So if — if — if you were to lose — and you're ahead, but if you were to lose, and you had all your appeals; they went through...

LAKE: As long as it's fair, honest and transparent.

KARL: And certified. I mean, who's going to determine that? Are you going to determine that, or — or what, if...

LAKE: It looks like my opponent might have to determine that. That's an interesting...

KARL: Well, she is the secretary — she is the secretary of state.

LAKE: That's an interesting conundrum, isn't it?

If Lake wins, she will call it "fair, honest and transparent." But IF she loses, suddenly the same secretary of state that would have certified her win will have "stolen" it from her. It's Trump's pre-2020 election and post-2020 election result strategy again. As we see ourselves as this chaos goes further in Arizona , it will partly because Trump and most of his insurrectionist co-conspirators have not been held to account.

And they won't be if we lose the midterms.

So go vote and have a week!!