Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake criticized President Joe Biden’s address to the nation as divisive at a press conference in Phoenix on Thursday.

“I watched the most absurd, frankly, obscene address I’ve ever seen a president give to the American people,” Lake said at a press conference at her campaign headquarters in Phoenix Thursday night.

“What I saw was someone who’s trying to divide this country. I’m not sure what’s wrong with Joe Biden, I know that he may have problems that we don’t know about, but what I saw was somebody who carries in his heart a great deal of disdain for a whole lot of really good American people,” Lake continued.

Former Fox 10 Phoenix anchor Kari Lake, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is in a competitive race against Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

RedState asked Lake about the address, particularly about how she defines political extremism, and what she would like the president to do to unite the country.

“A big focus on Biden’s speech was on political extremism, primarily on the right. Generally speaking, how do you personally define what political extremism is?” RedState asked. Lake replied:

“I think that he’s trying to push for violence, to be honest. It really saddened me to listen to him talking about violence… I think he’s so worried about losing power, because the people have woken up. These are not violent people behind me, these are our supporters. These are people who love this country. They want safe streets, they don’t want violence on the streets. He’s projecting, and I think that’s extreme to be honest.”

“What are steps that you think the president could take to unite the country right now, before the midterms or after?”

“You know, if I were him, I would bring people together and say, “I know we are a divided country”, and this is what my message is: We are divided right now. But trying to continue to point fingers at people who didn’t vote for him, and people who have legitimate questions and concerns, and demonize them is not how you bring people together. And I really want to start bringing people together. It might be hard to bring the entire country together, but I want to start here in Arizona,” Lake replied.

“And I think we are bringing people together… and one of thing I want to say, one of things I got critized for, they said at one point I had been a Democrat. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat. I don’t care if you’re an independent, or if you’re a Republican. This not about politics, this is about solving the problems that we have so we can all live a happy life. That our children can be raised in a safe country and in a safe state. That our mom and dads can actaully find work out there that actually pays enough to put food on the table. So I’m all about bringing people together, and I’m determined to do that.”

“What I saw was somebody trying to divide this country.” –@KariLake on tonight’s speech by Biden. pic.twitter.com/skTzVJKbit

— Cameron Arcand (@cameron_arcand) September 2, 2022

Biden’s speech was heavily critical of populist Republicans, which have become an influential group of voters and activists in recent years.

“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards. Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose. No right to privacy. No right to contraception. No right to marry who you love,” Biden said at one point.

.@POTUS: "MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards. Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose. No right to privacy. No right to contraception. No right to marry who you love." https://t.co/JEUwWqbdoB pic.twitter.com/MfrpeXeWUu

— The Hill (@thehill) September 2, 2022