Ex-Republican National Committee spokesperson Tim Miller claimed that Trump appointee Kari Lake approached him and screamed in his face at an afterparty for the conservative Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference this weekend.
Miller — a writer-at-large for the anti-Trump conservative site The Bulwark — wrote on Sunday that the failed Arizona gubernatorial and senatorial candidate screamed “DON’T TOUCH ME” and “YOU ARE A PIECE OF SHIT” at him.
He wrote that he suspected the encounter was due to a past run-in, a 2023 interview where he called Lake out for obsessing over Donald Trump’s “big lie” and he expressed discomfort with her touching his hands.
He also described the encounter with the election-denying conspiracy theorist as a “SCENE” at an afterparty for a conference that saw the president-elect delivering his first large-scale public speech since the election on Sunday.
“‘You are a piece of shit!’ she repeats over, and over, and over, and over, and over, staring up at me with increasing rage in her eyes and at times pinching my arm like an angry grandmother,” wrote Miller of Lake.
He noted on X that Lake’s husband, Jeff Halperin, “taped the performance.”
Miller added that he didn’t film the exchange and his body “immediately went into fight or flight mode, so it is possible that my recollection of the exact language she used is slightly off.”
“Given that Lake taped the exchange, I suspect we might get to see it in full,” wrote Miller, who noted that Lake also told him he was “fake news,” a “liar” and that he didn’t care about “fentanyl mothers.”
Far-right internet personality and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer proceeded to make her way to the two and — in a tone fit for a “public gathering” — echoed that he was a “lying POS” before Lake wound down, according to Miller.
Lake looks to serve as the director of the historically nonpartisan, government-funded Voice of America news outlet after Trump named her as his pick to lead the agency earlier this month.
The appointment of the VOA director is solely authorized by the International Broadcasting Advisory Board under the International Broadcast Act.
Miller later told The Daily Beast he believes he mostly “smiled awkwardly” during the encounter and he wasn’t certain on his response until he sees the video.
“A few times I attempted to congratulate Lake on her new role as the nominee to be the director of the Voice Of America,” he wrote over text. “At first I was trying to de-escalate, but eventually I confess that I was mocking her.”
HuffPost has reached out to both Lake and Loomer for comment.
Lake, in a post to X on Sunday, shared her “vision” for VOA and wrote that the mainstream media “thinks the only way to be a fair journalist is if you hate Trump.”
“That’s wrong,” she claimed.
“We’re not asking you to take a loyalty pledge to the regime. We want impartial coverage that is accurate & honest I’m loyal to the truth.”