Kari Lake wants GOP to cancel 2024 presidential primary and rally around Trump ASAP

To right-wing firebrand author Ann Coulter, the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro and other Ron DeSantis cheerleaders, the Florida governor is the Republican Party's best chance to free itself from Donald Trump in 2024. DeSantis has yet to make a formal announcement, but he appears to be gearing up for a presidential run. And his supporters are quick to point out that he was reelected by 19 percent in 2022.

However, Kari Lake — the far-right conspiracy theorist, election denialist and former television reporter who lost to Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs last year — is urging DeSantis not to run. Moreover, Lake believes the GOP should cancel its 2024 presidential primary, nominate Trump immediately and rally around him.

Appearing on Republican Rudy Giuliani's podcast, Lake told the ex-Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, "I think DeSantis' political career is in trouble if he doesn't get smart. He has been an effective governor — there is no double about it. He has been effective. The people just voted him in…. All I'm saying is: I really believe DeSantis needs to realize that if he wants to have a political future, he needs to wait until 2028…. I think if DeSantis was to back out now, it would be really smart for him to do that."

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Lake continued, "He's got a big career ahead of him, and the question is: Does he want a big political career? If he does, I think he backs out now and supports Trump wholeheartedly and then continues to run Florida."

Lake has been a major promoter of the Big Lie, Trump's false and repeatedly debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And she has also claimed, with zero evidence, that Arizona's gubernatorial election was stolen from her. Lake has yet to concede to now-Gov. Hobbs, who has been in office for four months.

One conservative who has been a scathing critic of Trump, Lake and the MAGA movement in general is journalist Charlie Sykes. In a column published by The Bulwark on May 3, Sykes discusses two very different groups of women who are affecting Trump's life: his accusers and his ardent supporters.

The accusers, he notes, include former Elle Magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, while Lake is among the devotees. Carroll alleges that Trump tried to sexually assault her in a Manhattan department store in 1996, and she is suing him for defamation.

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"Because I'm not a lawyer and don't play one on television," Sykes writes, "I'm not prejudging the E. Jean Carroll case, or making any predictions about the outcome."

Sykes notes that although Trump isn't going as far as Lake and saying that the GOP's 2024 presidential primary should be canceled, he clearly doesn't want to debate fellow Republicans.

The Never Trumper comments, "The bravest, most dominant, manliest of alpha males — the man who promises 'I am your retribution!' — absolutely does not want to get on the stage with anyone who runs against him. And so, he probably won't. Because, well, you know."

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Read Charlie Sykes' full column for The Bulwarkat this link.