Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake criticized the media over including Katie Hobbs’ statement on the Monday night burglary of Hobbs’s campaign office, which suggested that the incident was politically motivated.

Phoenix police re-arrested 36-year-old Daniel Mota Dos Reis on Thursday after he was identified by an officer, according to Arizona’s Family. The outlet reported that the officer recognized him from a separate burglary arrest on Wednesday. Reis was already behind bars, when the officers realized it was the same person.

There is zero evidence that the suspect had political motivations given his past history with mental health issues. In August 2021, there was a civil probate mental health lawsuit filed in Maricopa County regarding him, and the case status is disposed, according to UniCourt.

RedState reported on Wednesday that Hobbs’ office in downtown Phoenix was burglarized, and embedded a tweet to Hobbs’s statement, but did not directly include it in the story; we did write that “there are no details about whether or not the burglary was politically motivated.”

In Lake’s press conference on Thursday, she said that the media overplayed Hobbs’ angle that Lake and her supporters somehow incited the incident. On two posterboards, Lake showed news clips, tweets, as well as comments from the Arizona Democratic Party that she believed leaned too heavily into Hobbs’ statement.

“You all spread a defamatory statement yesterday, in an effort to influence the election,” Lake said.

“You couldn’t get the facts out, and you were willing to put out defamatory statements about me, my supporters, and my team. That’s my problem,” the Republican said to the press.

Lake joked that her office had its own break-in at their headquarters early this morning tied directly to Hobbs, and she showed a posterboard with a photo of somebody in a chicken costume.

.@KariLake joked that they had a break-in at their own campaign office last night, and showed a photo of someone in a chicken costume. pic.twitter.com/H1xwtQ70ta

— Cameron Arcand (@cameron_arcand) October 27, 2022

Wednesday night, Lake said that “this sounds like Jussie Smollett part two,” as RedState reported.

Not surprisingly, Kari Lake herself has responded accordingly by saying what many on the right thought upon first hearing the news about the alleged break-in, suggesting Hobbs is trying to pull off one of the oldest tricks in the book with less than two weeks to go before Election Day.

“That is absolutely absurd. And are you guys buying that? Are you really buying that? Because this sounds like a Jussie Smollett part two,” Lake told CNN reporter Kate Sullivan after she was asked about the allegation.

Lake then went for the jugular, making sure to weave into her statement the fact that Hobbs won’t debate her. “I can’t believe that she would blame my amazing people or blame me… I don’t even know where her campaign office is,” she said. “I’m assuming it’s in a basement somewhere because that’s where she’s been campaigning.”

While Hobbs put out the statement on Wednesday, the Democrat declined to discuss the subject with the media the next day.

“I’m not talking about, I’m not talking about the break-in today. I’m not talking about the break-in,” Hobbs said at a Thursday roundtable on abortion. “I think access to safe and legal abortion is kind of a big deal and that’s what we’re here to talk about.”