(CNN) – Far-right Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake once advocated for transgender youth and asked her followers about aborting fetuses who would be born with disabilities in social media posts from 2015 and 2016 examined by CNN’s KFile, despite running as a strongly anti-transgender and anti-abortion candidate.
Former local news anchor Lake, who is running for governor of Arizona and has the support of the late President Donald Trump, has railed against transgender rights and abortion. She has regularly criticized “woke gender activists” and “the transgender movement.”
“A child’s gender is determined by God at conception, NOT by some Woke Teacher in the 3rd grade,” she wrote in one recent Twitter comment. “This insanity must end.” She has also campaigned against abortion rights, saying, “I always have and always will fight for the unborn!”
However, Lake provided a more sympathetic and supportive view of transgender people going through gender transition in remarks posted on her Facebook page that she kept up as a news anchor in 2015. She also appreciated a speech given by former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner.
Lake defended Jenner in the comments section of the same article when someone claimed the former Olympian lacked courage and wasn’t deserving of the honor.
“I thought Caitlin’s [sic] speech at the ESPYS was very moving. I am absolutely rooting for anyone who makes the difficult decision to transition. It is a decision that is never made lightly,” Lake wrote in the replies to her post on Facebook in July 2015. “The point is this is her life.”
Lake continued by noting that transgender youth need support because they face high suicide rates, writing, “And there are a lot of young people coming up today facing the same difficult dilemma needing support so we don’t have so many suicides in this group of individuals. No one is asking you to transition, they are just asking for a little bit [sic] understanding or support.”
Another Facebook post from April 2015 by Lake pushed a story on a lady who transitioned that she had done on her local Fox station, calling it an “inspiring journey.” “A big thank you to Juli Myers for her honesty and candor in explaining what the transgender experience is all about,” she wrote. “I really enjoyed hearing about her interesting and inspiring journey.”
After she started promoting electoral theories on a regular basis and focused her campaign on the so-called culture wars, Lake rose to fame in the Arizona governor’s race and finally won Trump’s support. After Lake showed up at campaign events with QAnon-affiliated activists and a Nazi sympathizer, CNN’s KFile published an article about her connections to extremists and conspiracy theorists. An attorney for Lake’s campaign said she “does not do a background check on everyone she takes a photo with or everyone whose name she ever mentions.”
Concerns about comparable inconsistencies in Lake’s public stance regarding drag queens have recently been raised in relation to her campaign. When running for office, Lake blasted these performances as being harmful to kids and then falsely compared drag queens to child sex predators for “grooming” children.
Following Lake’s original assault, a well-known drag queen in the Phoenix region claimed that Lake had permitted her daughter to attend a drag show at Lake’s house. The Lake campaign refused to refute the claim, saying that she actually hired an impersonator rather than a drag queen, and later issued the source a cease-and-desist letter.
Lake is thought to be the favorite to succeed term-limited GOP Governor Doug Ducey in the 2022 Republican primary. Early voting started on July 6, and the primary election is set for August 2. A day after early voting started, Ducey declared his support for Karrin Taylor Robson, Lake’s GOP republican opponent, stating that “there’s no question who is the proven conservative ready to lead.”
When CNN contacted Lake for comment, she did not answer.
Asked about aborting fetuses with Zika Virus
In one Facebook post, from February 2016, Lake posted a “deep question of the day,” asking if fetuses with the Zika virus — which can cause birth defects — should be aborted.
“Deep question of the day,” Lake wrote. “This one dealing with abortion and the Zika virus. Hear me out, please. With the Zika Virus expected to spread ‘explosively’ around the world and cases popping up already here in the US will this devastating virus change your stance on abortion?”
“The virus stunts the skull development and thus brain development of a growing fetus. Causing their brains to be only half the size of a healthy human. The human toll of tens of thousands of ‘Zika babies’ is already alarming. The babies will face enormous medical [sic] problems and never develop normally. The medical, emotional, and economic effect [sic] of the Zika Virus is going to be astronomical.”
“Should abortions be easily attained for pregnant women who find out they’re caring for a baby affected by Zika?” she asked.
While running for governor, Lake referred to abortion as the “ultimate sin” and expressed support for a law that would outlaw all medical abortion clinics in Arizona as well as the FDA-approved abortion drugs. Her campaign told Arizona Republic Newspaper, that Lake is “pro-life” and only favors abortion in cases of rape, incest, and to save the mother’s life.
