Kari Lake Turns Burglary Into Kinda Clever Kentucky-Fried Campaign Prank

Kari Lake called an "emergency press conference" on Thursday, but it turned out to be a prank on her opponent in the governor's race and a continuation of the political theater that has defined her insurgent campaign.

The GOP contender for Arizona governor gave no details and just three hours' notice ahead of the presser. Representatives of news outlets from as far away as France and Japan scrambled to Lake's campaign office on Camelback Road in east Phoenix.

Lake, a former news anchor, first chided the press for “running with” the “defamatory” and “fake” story about a burglary earlier in the week at the campaign office of her Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Except the burglary wasn't fake. Phoenix police arrested a suspect on Wednesday.

The Hobbs campaign initially blamed Lake for inciting the break-in. But the suspect has no apparent ties to either campaign and was connected to a separate, unrelated burglary close to Hobbs' campaign office in midtown.

But Lake, sensing an opportunity to make political hay, pounced on Thursday. She said the break-in was a “stunt” pulled by Hobbs.“It was an effort, I think, to influence this election,” she said.

What followed during the press conference was pure political theater.

“We had an incident this morning at our campaign headquarters,” Lake told reporters. “Now, I didn’t go crazy, and I didn’t throw a bunch of statements out. But we had an incident where somebody was seen rummaging in our campaign office, and I have evidence to believe it may have been Katie Hobbs herself.”

Lake continued on about her own burglary for several minutes, supplicating the press to cover it with the same “vim and vigor” that was used to cover “the lies that were spread yesterday.” She added that Fox News “protected the criminal and defamed me” by blurring the suspect’s face, even though he has yet to be convicted of a crime.

“We had an incident this morning at about 6:45 a.m. We have video, we have actual photographic evidence of somebody rummaging through our campaign headquarters, and I believe it was Katie Hobbs," Lake said.

That’s when Lake pulled the curtain from a large foam board poster to reveal a photoshopped image of someone in a giant chicken costume standing inside Lake’s office. It was the latest round of Lake portraying Hobbs as a chicken for declining to debate her.

The press conference was all a joke. Certainly, it wasn’t an emergency. The real joke, Lake said, “is what you guys are doing in the news. It’s malpractice of journalism like I’ve never seen before.” She was joined at the event by Abe Hamadeh, the GOP candidate for Arizona Attorney General who, like Lake, often blames the press for everything.

Hobbs offered a less energetic retort to Lake's campaign stunt.

“Kari Lake’s preposterous allegation that this break-in was staged is unfounded,” Hobbs said in an email to Phoenix New Times. “Her refusal to condemn the threats that have become common in our politics continues to stoke chaos.”

In a new Fox 10 Phoenix poll, Lake has an 11-point lead over Hobbs, continuing to build on the momentum that first appeared in polls earlier this month.