Report: Kari Lake accosted Ruben Gallego at D.C. club over ‘cartel’ ties

Theoretically, one of the benefits of defeating Kari Lake in a Senate race is not having to run into her in Washington, D.C. As Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego is learning, some theories don’t hold water.

According to reporting from The Bulwark, Gallego and Lake ran into each other as he was leaving Ned's Club, a D.C. social club that calls itself a “place for diverse professionals to meet, work and have a good time.” The membership to join is $5,000 a year. The Bulwark reported the encounter happened sometime this winter, so it’s unclear if Gallego had yet been sworn in as a senator or if Lake had begun her stint as a special advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Gallego told the outlet that he was on his way to the elevator when he crossed paths with Lake. He reached out to shake hands, and Lake placed both her hands on his.

“How does it feel to be bought and paid for by the cartels?” Lake asked, repeating an outlandish campaign trail allegation about Gallego’s father — whom the senator has said left his family when he was a child — that earned applause at Lake’s events. PolitiFact noted in October that the claim that Gallego had connections to the cartel was patently false.

Gallego said Lake also asked him, “‘How could you live with yourself every day?”

“I’m like, ‘Easily: I won,’ and walked away,” Gallego told The Bulwark.

Gallego’s office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Lake and the U.S. Agency for Global Media. As of Thursday afternoon, neither party had mentioned the incident on their respective social media channels.

Lake might be too busy to post about for the run-in. Recently, she’s been signing a couple of papers to fire employees and dismantle USAGM, though it’s unclear whether Lake had the authority to sign off on the massive cuts. When she’s not Elon Musk-ing her way around the department, she’s pushing misinformation about fraud and waste on conservative news channels, soft-focus camera and all.

While the confrontation with Gallego reveals one thing about Lake’s psyche — she’s having trouble moving past her November defeat that pretty much branded Lake as a loser unfit for Arizona politics — it’s telling in more than one way. The former TV news anchor has long been painted as a craven opportunist who jumped on the MAGA bandwagon as a shortcut to fame and power. But there were no cameras around when she grasped Gallego’s hand and spouted a lie about his family to his face.

Maybe she does believe the bullshit she says after all.