On YouTube, Steven Crowder applauds as Kari Lake calls the federal government “illegitimate,” and says Biden didn't win the 2020 election

Crowder hosted Lake, the election-denying GOP nominee for governor in Arizona

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Update (8/18/22): On August 17, YouTube removed this episode for apparently violating the platform’s misinformation policy. Crowder also claims he was suspended from YouTube, preventing him from streaming on the platform, for two weeks.

From the August 11, 2022, edition of Louder with Crowder, streamed on YouTube

KARI LAKE (REPUBLICAN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE IN ARIZONA): People want someone who's going to push back against this, I believe, illegitimate federal government right now with Joe Biden in charge.

STEVEN CROWDER (HOST): Now, can you clarify -- just to make sure that our audience understands. What do you mean when you say illegitimate federal government by Joe Biden?

LAKE: Well, I don't believe Joe Biden won the election. And we had problems with the 2020 election. I've talked about that. They've criticized me for that. But I've looked at the facts. I've looked over our forensic audit. I've looked over all kinds of evidence. We had a botched corrupt election in Arizona and in many other states. And this why it is really important –

[CROWDER APPLAUDS]

LAKE: – that we do look at our elections. It is why it is one of my top issues to reform our elections here in Arizona.

As YouTube notes on its site:

Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect. Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come. As always, news coverage and commentary on these issues can remain on our site if there’s sufficient education, documentary, scientific or artistic context.