{"id":247,"date":"2026-06-18T19:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=247"},"modified":"2026-06-18T19:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:39:27","slug":"is-she-ill-lake-stifles-combative-instincts-at-confirmation-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"Is she ill? Lake stifles combative instincts at confirmation hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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\u2019s slung mud, spouted conspiracy theories and generally hasn\u2019t shied from a fight.<\/p>\n

Read more Arizona police board approves cop who allegedly attacked neighbor<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Republicans on the committee, and when Democratic senators pressed her on various issues \u2014 including lies she\u2019s told about Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and her mismanagement of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America \u2014 Lake mostly avoided sniping back.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 haphazard by outside standards \u2014 to dismantle USAGM media organizations and her relationship with President Donald Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the ambassador role, Lake said she\u2019d 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\u2019s \u201cgrowing economic influence\u201d in the area. She also talked about Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, the country\u2019s bobsled team and the creation of reggae, and she shared that she\u2019s visited Jamaica over 40 times for vacation, including her honeymoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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,\u201d Lee told her. \u201cYou were born for this position.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Democrats on the committee pointed out the numerous pockmarks in Lake\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen questioned Lake\u2019s time overseeing Voice of America, which broadcasts independent journalism into authoritarian countries that lack press freedom. After giving an overview of Lake\u2019s time at USAGM \u2014 which included paying staffers to not work for months as she tried to dismantle the organization \u2014 Shaheen chastised Lake for stonewalling her staff when they tried to ask questions about the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have not been forthcoming with our time with your committee, I apologize for that,\u201d Lake responded. \u201cI know that many members of our team have met with your staff. I can think of three or four times that we\u2019ve met with them already. If that wasn\u2019t enough, then we can work to continue our open dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Democrats test Lake<\/h2>\n

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\u2019s ability to broadcast into the country when the Trump administration joined Israel in bombing Iran in 2025.<\/p>\n

Read more Biggs applauds Hobbs\u2019 data center crackdown at GOP governor debate<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Lake defended her actions, claiming that \u201cthere 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.\u201d Murphy decried that as \u201cabsolutely not true\u201d \u2014 in fact, VOA employees have sued Lake over her cuts and decisions \u2014 but Lake refrained from firing back.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cproud\u201d of the way she ran her 2022 and 2024 campaigns, which were filled with personal attacks and election denialism.<\/p>\n

Gallego\u2019s father abandoned his family when Gallego was young and subsequently was arrested on drug charges. The Arizona senator \u2014 who changed his last name to his mother\u2019s maiden name \u2014 has written and talked at length about his disdain for the man and the damage he did to the family.<\/p>\n

Kaine called Lake\u2019s comments \u201cpretty undiplomatic behavior\u201d and asked Lake if she had any evidence that Gallego is \u201ccontrolled by cartels.\u201d Lake started to say that her campaign \u201cprovided receipts\u201d of the father\u2019s drug history \u2014 which no one has disputed \u2014 before Kaine interrupted her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou said that Ruben Gallego was controlled by the cartels. You provided no evidence. This was rated \u2018pants on fire\u2019 a lie. You had no evidence then and you have no evidence now that Ruben Gallego is controlled by cartels. Isn\u2019t that right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lake thanked Kaine for the question before admitting, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not here to do reputational control or reputational repair.\u201d Kaine then asked Lake if she\u2019d apologize to Gallego. \u201cI don\u2019t believe my charge is wrong,\u201d Lake replied \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\n

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 \u201cpolitical class\u201d did not want her to win. But she stopped short of saying her elections were stolen and didn\u2019t mention the word \u201cfraud\u201d at all.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s nominees.<\/p>\n

Read more A guide to all the ballot measures Arizona voters will decide in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Phoenix newscaster Kari Lake, who is up for U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica, struck a notably more cooperative tone than usual on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nIs she ill? Lake stifles combative instincts at confirmation hearing - Phoenix Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=247\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is she ill? 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