Over the past four years, as she twice unsuccessfully ran for office and more recently as a Trump administration official and mouthpiece, former Phoenix newscaster Kari Lake has fashioned herself into a MAGA firebrand. She’s slung mud, spouted conspiracy theories and generally hasn’t shied from a fight.
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But in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Thursday morning, needing confirmation votes to officially land her new gig as U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica, Lake was unusually level-headed and polite. She accepted the compliments and fielded the softball questions from Republicans on the committee, and when Democratic senators pressed her on various issues — including lies she’s told about Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and her mismanagement of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America — Lake mostly avoided sniping back.
Sitting on a panel with four other nominees for various foreign relations positions, Lake was hyped up by stalwart MAGA Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Bill Hagerty for her work — haphazard by outside standards — to dismantle USAGM media organizations and her relationship with President Donald Trump.
In the ambassador role, Lake said she’d support U.S. citizens living and visiting in Jamaica, help the country through hurricane season, push back against transnational drug cartels, advocate for American businesses, address trade barriers and counter China’s “growing economic influence” in the area. She also talked about Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, the country’s bobsled team and the creation of reggae, and she shared that she’s visited Jamaica over 40 times for vacation, including her honeymoon.
“If you tried to design a person better suited to be the U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, you could not do a better job than Kari Lake,” Lee told her. “You were born for this position.”
The Democrats on the committee pointed out the numerous pockmarks in Lake’s resume, though they were unable to draw out the feisty combatant side of Lake that so turned off voters in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen questioned Lake’s time overseeing Voice of America, which broadcasts independent journalism into authoritarian countries that lack press freedom. After giving an overview of Lake’s time at USAGM — which included paying staffers to not work for months as she tried to dismantle the organization — Shaheen chastised Lake for stonewalling her staff when they tried to ask questions about the agency.
“If we have not been forthcoming with our time with your committee, I apologize for that,” Lake responded. “I know that many members of our team have met with your staff. I can think of three or four times that we’ve met with them already. If that wasn’t enough, then we can work to continue our open dialogue.”
Democrats test Lake
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy came a bit harder at Lake when it was his turn to question her. The Democrat buttonholed Lake about her decision to cut Persian staff at Voice of America and to cut funding for Radio Farda, which broadcasts Farsi-language coverage into Iran. The cuts hampered VOA’s ability to broadcast into the country when the Trump administration joined Israel in bombing Iran in 2025.
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Lake defended her actions, claiming that “there are people here in this room who work at VOA who would tell you that every single thing they have asked for, we have provided them.” Murphy decried that as “absolutely not true” — in fact, VOA employees have sued Lake over her cuts and decisions — but Lake refrained from firing back.
Tensions heightened a bit more when Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine asked Lake about her repeated unfounded attacks tying Gallego to drug cartels through his estranged father, claims that have been found to be blatantly false by fact-checkers. Previously in the hearing, Lake said she was “proud” of the way she ran her 2022 and 2024 campaigns, which were filled with personal attacks and election denialism.
Gallego’s father abandoned his family when Gallego was young and subsequently was arrested on drug charges. The Arizona senator — who changed his last name to his mother’s maiden name — has written and talked at length about his disdain for the man and the damage he did to the family.
Kaine called Lake’s comments “pretty undiplomatic behavior” and asked Lake if she had any evidence that Gallego is “controlled by cartels.” Lake started to say that her campaign “provided receipts” of the father’s drug history — which no one has disputed — before Kaine interrupted her.
“You said that Ruben Gallego was controlled by the cartels. You provided no evidence. This was rated ‘pants on fire’ a lie. You had no evidence then and you have no evidence now that Ruben Gallego is controlled by cartels. Isn’t that right?”
Lake thanked Kaine for the question before admitting, “I don’t know. I’m not here to do reputational control or reputational repair.” Kaine then asked Lake if she’d apologize to Gallego. “I don’t believe my charge is wrong,” Lake replied — not exactly a reversal, but hardly the bellicose tone she usually strikes (including on social media) when it comes to her foe in the 2024 election.
In all, it made for a relatively tame performance from Lake. Even when Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania gave her an opportunity to address her two runs for office, Lake talked about fighting for election integrity in the courts and said that the “political class” did not want her to win. But she stopped short of saying her elections were stolen and didn’t mention the word “fraud” at all.
Whether such an amiable performance will be enough to land Lake the ambassadorship remains to be seen. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will need to advance her nomination to the full Senate, which can confirm her with just 51 votes. Though the body has a Republican majority, Lake has turned off some centrist Republicans and lawmakers have been increasingly willing to push back on some of the Trump administration’s nominees.
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