Kari Lake didn’t hold back when she called out a woke congresswoman to her face for refusing to cheer for child cancer patient DJ Daniel during his address to Congress, wrecking the representative and her party because of their refusal to support a sick child who has long been championed by Republicans.
For context, during a tense Senate hearing on June 29, 2025, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) grilled Kari Lake, Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USGAM), over her contesting of the results of the 2020 election, her praise for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and a wide array of other issues. In response, Lake ripped into the representative and her ilk for their refusal to cheer for DJ daniel, a 13-year-old with brain cancer.
During the hearing, the congresswoman asked Lake, “Do you support democracy or authoritarianism?” Lake replied, “I think that’s pretty obvious. I support freedom and Democracy.” Rep. Jayapal then asked, “Do you agree that accepting the results of a fair and free election are critical to a functioning democracy?”
Continuing her interrogation of Lake, Rep. Jayapal barred her from attempting to respond, and added, “Do you think it’s essential for democracy to have a free and fair election?” Lake replied, “We need free and fair elections. Rep. Jayapal pushed back, “You have, to this day, refused to acknowledge that President Trump lost the 2020 election.”
In addition, Rep. Jayapal grilled Lake for “defending and praising dictators,” saying, “You previously stated that Hungary is quote, doing it right, and that Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban was, quote, ‘The Greatest in America,’ greatest in caps, and quote, ‘an equal to President Trump.'” Lake replied, “I think that Victor Orban has done a very good job of protecting his people and protecting the Hungarian culture.”
Unsatisfied with Lake’s answer, the representative said that “even Secretary Rubio acknowledged…in a 2019 letter that under Orban, Hungary took a downward democratic trajectory, and yet you insist that Hungary is doing it right.” Lake shot back, “What does this have to do with USAID?”
Furthermore, during the hearing, Lake pushed back against Rep. Jayapal by pointing out that she and her Democratic colleagues had refused to cheer for cancer sufferer DJ Daniel, holding up a picture of a group of House Democrats seated during Daniel’s address to Congress and saying, “Would you agree that standing up and cheering for a cancer survivor would have been a nice thing to do?”
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When Breitbart News posted a clip of Lake’s roast of Rep. Jayapal on X, conservatives sounded off in the comments, with the user SpicyPatriot writing, “If DJ Daniel was a Democrat, I bet you Pamela (sic) would embrace him! Sad.” Another commenter chimed in, “She is terrible for Washington State.”
Watch Rep. Jayapal get roasted:
And watch that despicable moment below from Trump’s March 4th joint address of Congress:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video