WATCH: Dan Abrams Asks Kari Lake’s Close Friend If He Thinks She Will Concede

NewsNation host and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams spoke to a friend of Kari Lake who claimed that the 2020 election-denying, right-wing firebrand will eventually admit her defeat in Arizona’s gubernatorial race.

Stan Barnes, a former Arizona state legislator, joined Abrams on Monday night as the news came in that Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) defeated Lake in their race for governor. Abrams also introduced Barnes as a friend of Lake’s for 20 years, and he started things off by asking if he thinks Lake will concede.

“The short answer is no,” Barnes answered, though he predicted that she’ll get there eventually.

I don’t think my friend Kari Lake will concede tonight. I don’t think she’ll concede tomorrow. I think she’s going to wait until there’s this moment of completion. We’re almost there and the map is all against her. I don’t know how she possibly rescues it at this point. But if you’ve given 2 years of your life and all that passion, you might forgive her for not just immediately falling over on this thing. She’s going to wait until there’s a moment of of declaration that the votes are counted, and then I believe she will be gracious and diplomatic and concede.

Throughout the Arizona race, there has been a great deal of focus on Lake’s 2020 election claims and her refusal to say whether she would accept the results of her own election if she loses. Lake has repeatedly criticized Hobbs for not recusing herself from her role in supervising Arizona’s election process, and on Monday night, Lake took to Twitter with a suggestion that the election was rigged against her.

“Arizonans know BS when they see it,” she said.

Abrams gave Lake some leeway by agreeing with Barnes that she doesn’t have to concede right away. Still, he pointed out that the results are “a foregone conclusion” before asking Barnes if he believes Lake will concede “in the near future.”

“I do,” Barnes said while predicting that Lake will remain politically relevant. He added that “she connects with people” before contradicting himself by pointing out that “she’s carrying around the burden of the 2020 election and her opinion it was stolen or corrupted. And evidently, most Arizonans, by some narrow margin, don’t believe that.”

“This will not be the last stop for her,” he said. “I believe she will diplomatically and graciously step aside once the numbers crowd the field and it’s there for all to see. but I believe… she’s going to be relevant, and she’s going to be interested in another office.”

Since other election-denying Republicans have declined to claim that their midterm election losses were the result of fraud, Abrams brought up Lake’s status at the forefront of the election-denialist movement. When he asked Barnes, “you think she really believes all the stuff?” Barnes told him, “I do…She believes in what she’s saying.”

Watch above via NewsNation.

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