Kari Lake Trashes Arizona Newspaper for Refusing to 'Print My Op-Ed'

Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake hit out at an Arizona newspaper, accusing it of refusing to publish her op-ed voicing support for Donald Trump's border wall while allowing her opponent, Ruben Gallego, to write one denouncing it.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the former Arizona gubernatorial candidate running for the state's U.S. Senate seat accused The Arizona Republic of denying her the chance to write an opinion piece about her plans to "secure" the United States-Mexico border.

Former President Trump made building a wall across the southern border in order to cut down on illegal immigration a key 2016 campaign promise. But on his first day in office in January 2021, his successor Joe Biden ceased production of any walls along the border still in place from the Trump era.

In October, the Biden administration announced that it would waive 26 environmental laws to build additional border barriers in South Texas, with Biden saying he was honoring a funding decision made in 2019 under Trump.

"The majority of Americans support President Trump's border wall," Lake wrote Tuesday on X, sharing a Breitbart article citing a poll that said 55 percent of likely voters in six swing states were for building the wall.

"My two Democrat opponents have fought tooth & nail against it," she wrote, mentioning that Gallego had written an op-ed on the topic. "Their open borders agenda is as out of touch as it is dangerous. And the Arizona Republic would not print my op-ed on my plan to secure the border, because I refused to remove the word invasion like they demanded."

Newsweek reached out to a representative for Lake and The Arizona Republic via email for comment.

MAGA supporter Lake lost the Arizona gubernatorial race in the 2022 midterms to Democrat Katie Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes.

She has contested the election results and is awaiting a ruling on her lawsuit filed earlier this year that demands Maricopa County release the images of 1.3 million ballot envelopes that were signed by voters. Her other bids to contest the 2022 midterm results, however, have almost all been dismissed by state courts.

Announcing her Senate candidacy last month, she said at a rally:

"I'm really tired of watching our politicians retreat from every single important battle. They're cowards. That's how we got into the mess we're in right now because they have surrendered far too many hills.

"I am not going to retreat. I'm going to stand on top of this hill with every single one of you, and I know you're by my side as I formally announce my candidacy for the United States Senate."

Recent polls have suggested the Trump-endorsed candidate is trailing behind Gallego in the race for incumbent Kyrsten Sinema's Senate seat.