NBC News reporter Vaughn Hillyard offered a scathing analysis of Republican Kari Lake’s loss in the Arizona governor’s race during Tuesday’s “Morning Joe.”
He argued that Lake’s decisions to predicate her campaign on “trying to sell the ‘big lie’” and campaign with individuals like Steve Bannon and Sen. Wendy Rogers in the final weeks before the election ultimately led to her downfall against Democrat Katie Hobbs.
“When she wonders how she lost the race, look at it,” Hillyard said. “This is the third election cycle in a row in which Arizonans rejected Trumpism.”
Hillyard, who appeared from Mar-A-Lago in Florida, compared covering Lake’s campaign to “Donald Trump’s campaign of 2024.”
“This is an individual who just last week called her Democratic opponent “a pervert.” This is an individual who suggested there should be perp walks for elections officials, criminal charges for individuals who oversaw the Covid response in Arizona…She called the media the right hand of the devil, the scourge of the earth,” Hillyard said. “If that doesn’t sound like Donald Trump, I don’t know what does.”
According to Hillyard, Lake’s loss marked the latest in a “clean sweep” of election-denier candidates.
“Now Donald Trump will try to run on the message that they lost on,” he concluded.
The former president is expected to announce a potential 2024 presidential run as early as Tuesday.
Watch the full “Morning Joe” clip above.