Kari Lake urged to get off the stage at Arizona Trump rally: ‘Wrap asap’

Democratic opponent Ruben Gallego says ‘MAGA Republicans’ are ‘finally catching up to the rest of Arizona’

Republican Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake was seemingly urged to get off the stage during a Trump rally in Glendale on Friday.

As she spoke, images taken from behind Lake reveal that messages on a screen in front of the podium urged her to “wrap asap” before telling her to “please get off stage” and “Trump waiting.”

Her Democratic opponent, Ruben Gallego, wrote on X: “MAGA Republicans finally catching up to the rest of Arizona.”

Trump rallies tend to begin hours before the former president actually appears as speakers take the stage ahead of him.

North Carolina Democratic Representative Wiley Nickel shared one of the images, writing that the choice in the Arizona Senate race is “crystal clear. We need Ruben Gallego in the US Senate.”

The daughter of the late Arizona Senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, conservative commentator Meghan McCain, also shared the images mocking Lake.

The Senate candidate and 2022 gubernatorial nominee said during a rally in November of that year, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out!” Newsweek noted.

In February, Lake said during a radio interview that she had been joking when mocking John McCain during her 2022 run for governor.

The Independent has contacted the Lake campaign for comment.

Lake, a former news anchor who has rejected the 2020 and 2022 election results, is running against Gallego for the seat of retiring Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat.

When she lost the 2022 election for governor against Democrat Katie Hobbs, Lake claimed that the election was stolen, and she has also boosted Trump’s claims that his election was stolen in 2020, despite the lack of evidence to support such claims.

“I’m extremely worried about what my opponent Ruben Gallego will do to the state we love. I’m running against the most radical man to ever run for office in Arizona history,” Lake said of her opponent on Friday.

Earlier this month, Gallego shared a coalition of 40 Arizona Republicans and independents backing him in a press release.

“I am running for the US Senate to represent all Arizonans, regardless of where they live or what political party they align themselves with,” the Democratic nominee said. “We may not agree on everything, but we can find common ground on one essential goal – building a better Arizona.”