‘With All Due Respect, I’m Conducting This Interview’: Kaitlan Collins Mixes It Up with Kari Lake, Who Refuses to Answer Simple Question

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reminded Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, who was running their Monday night interview after the latter repeatedly declined to concede her 2022 loss in Arizona’s gubernatorial race.

Lake lost the race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes. She never conceded defeat and filed several legal actions that died in court.

Ahead of her general election contest next week against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), she joined CNN’s The Source to discuss the battleground Senate race and other topics. Throughout the lengthy interview, Lake – a former Phoenix news anchor – declined to answer whether she believes she lost her election to Hobbs.

Collins asked, “So you’re not going to say whether or not you lost the 2022 race, is that what I’m hearing?”

Lake and Collins then went back and forth on the 2022 election and also about who was conducting the interview:

LAKE: Well, I want to make sure our elections are run properly, and I’m still in litigation, so I don’t want to speak to that. But I do want to look forward. And it’s so funny that the media. Kaitlan, Hold up. Hold up. The media can’t get over it. You say I can’t get over it, and it looks like you can’t.

COLLINS: I don’t think I said that. I just said you have conceded the race, and I know you mentioned your litigation. You filed multiple lawsuits. Have any of those lawsuits been successful?

LAKE: Hold up, Kaitlan. We’ve had ten questions probably, and you’ve had all of them being about elections or abortion. And while those are big issues, I care about them. You’ve asked zero questions about inflation and the cost of living. In Arizona, we can’t afford to live anymore. We have the fastest-growing rent prices in the country in three of our cities.

COLLINS: So, you’re not going to answer the question about whether or not you lost the election?

LAKE: I’m actually thinking you meant to ask me about the issues that people cared about, and people care about our wide-open border. They care that 21 million people have poured into your city, to my city, all across this country.

COLLINS: Do you think people care if you’re willing to accept the results of an election that was free and fair and that you followed multiple lawsuits that have not gone anywhere? And I should note a defamation lawsuit that was filed against you. You did not contest it – from a top Arizona election official – that says you lied about him repeatedly.

LAKE: Well, I think what you meant to ask is, is Kari, things are really tough right now.

COLLINS: With all due respect, I’m conducting this interview, but you’re not answering those questions. And if that’s your answer, that’s fine.

Watch above via CNN.