Katie Hobbs says Kari Lake, other election fraud pushers inciting threats

Gubernatorial candidates Katie Hobbs and Kari Lakes are claiming they’ve received threats against them during their campaigns and point fingers at each other.
Published: Oct. 27, 2022 at 10:15 PM MST
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PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Arizona’s Family obtained a death threat against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Someone left her a voice message on primary day on August 2.

The message stated, “This message is for traitor Katie Hobbs. You’ve drugged your feet. You’ve done nothing to protect our election for 2020. You’re committing election fraud. You’re starting to do it again. You’re the enemy of the United States. You’re a traitor to this country. You better put your [expletive] affairs in order, cause your days are extremely numbered. America’s coming for you, and you will pay with your life. You communist [expletive] traitor [expletive].”

Hobbs said in an interview today with Dennis Welch that she and her team have faced threats like this for two years. “Myself and my staff have been subject to harassment and threats. I have security everywhere I go,” she said.

Hobbs believes candidates saying 2020 was a stolen election from former President Donald Trump are inciting the threats. However, Hobbs says people listening to candidates like Kari Lake and others are taking action against a lie. “She’s spewing more lies this is dangerous. This is chaos it’s the kind of chaos Kari Lake brings with her everywhere she goes. I have no expectation Lake will be a leader and step up and denounce violence and tell people to stand down,” she explained.

On Thursday, Lake held a press conference to denounce Hobbs for insinuating that her campaign had anything to do with the burglary at the Hobbs Campaign headquarters. Reporter Michael Raimondi asked Lake if she felt any sort of responsibility for the threats made against her opponent. “No. If somebody threatens someone, that’s their responsibility. My responsibility is to work hard as a candidate and then work hard as a governor,” she said.

Lake then explained that we live in a dangerous time and that she and her family have been threatened. She didn’t show any documents or evidence but said people threaten them all the time. We reached out to her campaign for more details about the threats.

In the days before and after the primary election in August, Lake said her campaign was detecting voter fraud. However, she would not provide evidence or proof after she had won the primary.