On Monday, writing for The Arizona Republic, columnist Laurie Roberts detailed the friction in the Republican Party as former Vice President Mike Pence travels to Arizona to campaign on behalf of Karrin Taylor Robson against Kari Lake, the candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
The news of Pence’s trip was first broken earlier in the day in The Washington Post. And, noted Roberts, Pence is joined by incumbent Arizona Governor Doug Ducey.
“On Sunday, Ducey took to the CNN’s State of the Union to savage Lake as a charlatan who is staking out Ultra MAGA positions that run counter to her decades of past actions and statements,” wrote Roberts. “‘This is all an act,’ Ducey told CNN’s Dana Bash. ‘She’s been putting on a show for some time now and we’ll see if the voters of Arizona buy it.’ Ducey wasn’t done. ‘Kari Lake is misleading voters with no evidence,’ he said, of her insistence that the 2020 election was stolen. ‘She’s been tagged by her opponents with the nickname, Fake Lake, which seems to be sticking and actually doing some damage.'”
According to the report, Trump and his allies are already trying to fight back — and it’s getting ugly.