Dem Senator Throws Down With Kari Lake For Accusing Colleague of Being ‘Controlled By the Cartel’

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) threw down with Trump nominee Kari Lake Thursday, arguing her repeated “lies” about a Senate colleague should disqualify her from consideration.

Lake appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as President Donald Trump’s nominee for the next U.S. ambassador to Jamaica. She currently serves as senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

Kaine asked Lake about statements she made regarding former Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) during her unsuccessful bid to defeat him in the 2024 U.S. Senate race.

“You gave a TV interview about your opponent, then House member, now our colleague, Senator Gallego, in which you said he is, quote, ‘controlled by the cartels.’ His own father was a Colombian drug trafficker, and so he’s got links to the cartel. A PolitiFact article…a few days later, rated that ‘Pants on Fire!'”

“Now, this is pretty undiplomatic behavior,” Kaine continued, recounting Gallego’s memoir where he explained how he became estranged from his father. “You had no evidence, then, nor do you have any evidence now, that our colleague Senator Gallego is controlled by cartels, do you, Ms. Lake?”

“Well, we provided the receipts,” Lake began. “The father was a high-level drug trafficker, trafficking hundreds of thousands of dollars—”

“You said that Ruben Gallego was controlled by the cartels. You provided no evidence,” Kaine interrupted. “You had no evidence, then, and you have no evidence now that Ruben Gallego is controlled by cartels. Isn’t that right?”

Lake continued:

LAKE: I don’t know, and I’m not here to do reputational control or reputational repair.

KAINE: Okay, how about an apology for our colleague? If you made that claim he was controlled by cartels, and now you’re saying you don’t know what the facts are, then you’re acknowledging that your charge was wrong. How about apologizing to our colleague?

LAKE: I don’t believe my charge was wrong. Ruben Gallego’s father is a high-level trafficker.

KAINE: That’s not the question I asked you! That’s not the ques— You asserted he was controlled by cartels. You had no evidence then, you have no evidence now, you’re unwilling to admit it. And here’s something that’s even worse, Mr. Chair. That was during the heat of a campaign. Sometimes we say things during campaigns that, we go too far. She’s continued to repeat this as a sitting member of the Trump administration!

A couple months ago, Ruben Gallego put out a tweet against the invasion of Venezuela. He didn’t mention Ms. Lake. He just said he was against it. And she, at 2:35 in the morning the following day responded, “You are a member of a Mexican cartel family. You are also a fraud. No one is surprised by your take.”

“She’s continuing to repeat a lie!” Kaine asserted. “She just told the committee she has no idea whether it’s true or false, but she was glad to say it, and she won’t retract it now. That should be disqualifying.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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