Kari Lake is ‘delusional’ for backpedaling on her anti-John McCain rhetoric, Meghan McCain says

PHOENIX — Meghan McCain said on Wednesday she isn’t buying Kari Lake’s claim that all of her jabs at John McCain were merely jokes.

“My entire take on this situation is just that the internal polling for Kari Lake’s campaign must be just staggeringly awful and scary to them when it comes to Independents and McCain Republicans not voting for her,” she said during a Wednesday interview with KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos.

“There is a giant swath of Arizonans who will never vote for this woman in no small part because of how much she has attacked my dad, who is a beloved Arizona icon,” she added.

McCain said Lake has a “cataclysmic misunderstanding” over the amount of support her dad still has five years after his death.

She joined the show eight hours after a fiery interaction with Lake on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Why are Kari Lake and Meghan McCain feuding?

McCain kicked off the interaction by calling Lake “repulsive” for her “continued attacks” against her family in a tweet sent around 8 a.m.

Kari Lake is trying to walk back her continued attacks on my Dad (& family) and all of his loyal supporters after telling them to “get the hell out”. Guess she realized she can’t become a Senator without us.

No peace, bitch. We see you for who you are – and are repulsed by it.

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) February 20, 2024

Her comment was in response to a Monday interview between Lake and Bruce and Gaydos, during which Lake said her many comments about McCain were jokes.

“I think if John McCain, who had a great sense of humor, if he would have heard it, he would have laughed,” Lake said on Monday.

Lake then responded to McCain’s Wednesday morning tweet with a 225-word letter calling for peace within the Republican party.

Hi Meghan,

As mothers, (both with two kiddos) I’m know we both agree that our children’s future is too important to let it slip away over past grudges or hurt feelings. That’s why I’m working hard to unite Republicans, Independents, Democrats — ALL Americans.

We are facing…

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) February 21, 2024

McCain’s response was simple: “No peace” followed by an expletive in all caps.

What jabs at John McCain did Kari Lake make?

Lake has a history of throwing the late McCain under the bus. The first strike came during an event in late 2021.

“We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out!” she told the crowd.

During her 2022 gubernatorial run, she made several controversial comments on the campaign trail. She even referred to him as a “loser.”

One comment came with a stabbing gesture during Lake’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference summit in Dallas on Aug. 6, 2022.

“We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine,” Lake said.

Kari Lake is ‘delusional,’ ‘pathetic’ and Trump’s ‘puppy dog,’ McCain says

“I see her for exactly who she is,” McCain said.

She believes Lake’s apologies are solely for political gain.

“Now she’s trying to say it was a joke? I used to work at Saturday Night Live. I know what a joke is,” McCain said.

She added that the MAGA Republicans’ disdain for her father is painful and embarrassing.

Not only that, but Lake follows Trump around like a puppy dog begging to be chosen as his vice presidential pick, McCain said.

“That’s obviously never going to happen because she is the one who loses elections. Not anyone with the last name McCain in the state of Arizona,” she said.

McCain also called Lake delusional for thinking a long letter on X — without any apology — will smooth things over after all her jabs at John McCain.

“To not understand that a person is going to defend their family … it’s just delusional,” she said. “It’s just delusional.”