Kari Lake names Democrat opponent ‘Basement Hobbs’ for hiding from debates

Kari Lake, former news anchor and GOP candidate for Arizona governor, gave her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs a new nickname – “Basement Hobbs” – for her refusal to meet her for a debate.  

During an appearance on Fox & Friends on Monday, Lake suggested that the Hobbs was incapable of holding her own in a public debate.  

"She can't even string a couple of words together," Lake told host Ainsley Earhardt.

"She was asked a softball question a couple of weeks ago: name one good thing about the Latino community and she spent the entire minute and a half saying ‘um’ and 'uh' and couldn't come up with one thing. So I think she knows why she won't debate. It would be like a birthday cake versus a chainsaw if she showed up."

Democrats have been wringing their hands about Lake after boosting her in the GOP primary over her more moderate challenger, Karrin Taylor Robinson, by highlight the establishment favorite’s past donation to state Democrats.

But the surging former news anchor has alarmed Democratic Party strategists, who now worry that they have created the “next MAGA star.”

Lake holds a 1.6% lead over Hobbs in recent polls, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average as of Oct. 24.

In September, Hobbs upset the Arizona political establishment by turning down a debate sponsored by the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission, established in 1998 to improve voter education and campaign finance enforcement, arguing a debate with Lake would "just be a circus." 

Lake likened her opponent dodging of debates and failure to draw large crowds at her public events to “taking a page out of Biden’s playbook.”

"We drew 3,500 people to a rally and a concert that we had on Saturday night," said Lake.

"Conversely, my opponent had her biggest campaign event of the season and there were 15 people there. These polls are not close. … We have a movement and nothing's going to stop it."

The Arizona gubernatorial is far from the only race where Democrats have been ducking debates. The New York Times reported that politicians in this election cycle had been cutting back on debates, opting instead for “safer spaces: partisan news outlets, fundraisers with supporters, friendly local crowds.”