If you were looking for an image that perfectly embodies former President Donald Trump’s relationship with the GOP and the GOP’s relationship with women, right-wing conspiracy theorist Kari Lake is happy to provide.
Lake, a second-rate former news anchor in Phoenix who has turned to extremist politics as her second act, is a Trump sycophant. She has embraced his lies about fraudulence in the 2020 presidential election, and that has driven her quest to ban voting machines and voting by mail, both of which are extremely popular among Arizonans of all political stripes.
A photo posted on Twitter on Sunday by the Newsmax host Benny Johnson shows Lake’s fealty in full view.
This is a real photo of Kari Lake vacuuming the red carpet before meeting Donald Trump.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 10, 2022
A member of Kari team told us she insisted on personally making sure the carpet was spotless out of “respect for the office of the President of the United States.”
This is servant leadership pic.twitter.com/FNzduy223x
Yes, that’s Kari Lake vacuuming a rug for Trump ahead of a rally Sunday. Or, put another way, a Republican trying to clean up for Trump … as we’ve come to recognize.
Or, to put it even more simply: a woman cleaning up for a man, which aligns with the “traditional” societal gender roles that conservatives obsess about reviving.
I’m sure this image appeals to many conservative men. Ordinarily, I might encourage you not to let this image distract from the atrocities you can expect if Lake becomes governor. But I don’t think that’s a problem here. The photo epitomizes what Arizonans would get if she is elected: slavish loyalty to Donald Trump and a return to 1950s-era politics.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.