Trump praises Lake’s debate performance in Arizona Senate race

Former President Trump praised Republican Kari Lake for her debate performance against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in the Arizona Senate race while campaigning in the Grand Canyon State on Sunday.

“You destroyed that poor guy. You know, they have an expression. If that were a fight, they would have stopped it, but that was a destruction,” Trump said during a campaign event in Prescott Valley, Ariz., referring to Gallego.

“You got to make that into a movie or something. You got to. Anybody that sees that would never vote for — this guy's a total lightweight,” he added later. “And this woman has given up a lot. She had great success, everything she did. You gotta get her in.”

Lake and Gallego faced off in their one and only debate last week as they vie for retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (I-Ariz.) Senate seat. Both candidates used the debate to lob attacks, with Lake seeking to tie Gallego to President Biden and Vice President Harris, while Gallego hit Lake over her comments on past election results and abortion.

Lake joined Trump onstage during his remarks.

“You know, I used to say after the first term of President Trump, we just witnessed one of the great presidents in American history. And now I say this is the greatest president in American history,” she said, prompting cheers from the crowd. “But I think it goes further than that — I think we are, we are in the midst of one of the greatest leaders in human history and his name is Donald J. Trump.”

Still, polling shows Gallego leading Lake in the race. An aggregate of Arizona surveys compiled by Decision Desk HQ shows Gallego ahead of Lake with roughly 50 percent support to her 42 percent.

Lake suggested in an interview with NBC News aired last week that voters shouldn’t trust the polling.

“The polling is much like what we saw in 2016 — polling that’s meant to move the voter into doing something. I know what our internal polling looks like. It’s great,” Lake told the network. “I talked to door knockers who are knocking for independent groups, who are knocking for Republican groups. The response people are getting at the door is overwhelming.”

The Hill has reached out to the Gallego campaign for comment.