Bombastic Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake invoked suggestive slang to tell followers at a conservative event in her home state that former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024 — exude confidence that implies a blessed anatomy.
“I’ll tell you what (DeSantis) has got. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but he’s got BDE,” Lake said to supporters in Phoenix over the weekend. “Anybody know what that means?”
The far-right wing candidate suggested anyone who isn’t aware that those initials stand for “Big D–k Energy” should ask their children to explain it later.
“I call it ‘big DeSantis energy,’ ” she then joked. “He’s got the same kind of BDE that President Trump has.”
Lake’s reference at Sunday’s Turning Points USA-sponsored event offended Jenna Ellis, who’s a former senior adviser and counsel to Trump, and who, like Lake, has falsely claimed fraud impacted Trump’s 2020 electoral loss.
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“Am I the only young conservative who thinks this kind of rhetoric at a TPUSA event is grossly inappropriate?” the 37-year-old attorney asked on Twitter.
During her speech Sunday, Lake, wearing a gold-cross necklace, claimed her campaign staff urged her not to use the word “balls” in her speech.
Porn star Stormy Daniels, who credibly insists she had a fling with Trump despite his denial, described the 45th president’s anatomy as “smaller than average,” though “not freakishly small.” During a March 2016 GOP debate, Trump assured Republican voters, “I guarantee you there’s no problem” in that regard.
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Ellis was part of Trump’s Rudy Giuliani-led team of lawyers trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that President Biden won by more than 7 million votes. Legal advocacy groups filed ethics complaints against the Colorado attorney for those efforts.
Lake has been criticized by local press for suggesting without evidence that voter fraud may have been an issue in the GOP primary she narrowly won earlier this month.
Prior to going to work for Trump, Ellis, in 2016, called Trump an “idiot” and a “criminal” whose followers “don’t care about facts or logic.”
Lake boasted on Twitter Monday that “Twitter is on fire” because of her remarks about Trump and DeSantis.