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I'm sticking by it: Richer was wrong to sue Kari Lake
As tweet storms go, it wasn’t much.
Just a wisp from some familiar cranks who wanted to gloat after Kari Lake tipped over her chess piece and ceded the match to Stephen Richer.
Richer, the Maricopa County recorder, had sued Lake for defamation and now she and her attorneys had filed a motion for default judgement in the case.
Richer, himself, went out on social media to celebrate his victory and called Lake a liar for accusing him of rigging the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, which in actuality, she had lost.
Yes, Ms. Lake lost.
That brought out a Twitter brigade, a very light brigade, that blew its little gust of wind at me because I’m the knothead who wrote several months ago that Richer’s defamation lawsuit is either “ridiculous” or “stupid” or “silly.”
I can’t remember which it was, and in the immortal words of our beloved Clay Thompson, “I’m too lazy to look it up.”
Whatever I wrote, it was bad, and I think the social media trolls were half-expecting me to slink away after having been so spectacularly wrong.
But I wasn’t wrong.
I was right.
I’m still right.
And if the day has finally arrived that I’m an island unto myself, well, so be it. I’m still hoisting the Jolly Roger.
This lawsuit is ridiculous on its face as it attempts to penetrate the safe harbor created over many, many decades around elections and political speech — the safe harbor that allows people and politicians, such as Kari Lake, to make perfect asses of themselves.
I personally like Stephen Richer. As integrity goes, the 2022 election could not have been in better hands than his and former Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates’.
I made that point the week Kari Lake started with her spurious accusations.
Stephen Richer is also my kind of Republican, old school, pre-MAGA, not insane — a stand-up guy.
As for Kari Lake, I reject her BS, but I defend her right........
© Arizona Republic
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