The mother of the officer who died amid the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, says in a new ad that her son died “because of people like Kari Lake,” the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona.
The ad from the Republican Accountability Project, a political action committee that opposes Republicans who supported efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, features Gladys Sicknick, the mother of fallen U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.
Sicknick says in the ad that Lake saw what happened during the insurrection and continues to spread false information about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from former President Trump.
“It’s very dire for our democracy, for our country, with the candidates like Kari Lake,” she said. “My son died because of people like Kari Lake.”
Sicknick said more violence will occur in the future if people “believe whatever she says.”
The ad includes clips from the rioters storming the Capitol and Lake making speeches, including a couple appearances she did with Trump.
Brian Sicknick died one day after the insurrection, which the D.C. chief medical examiner attributed to two strokes, concluding he died from natural causes.
Brian Sicknick’s partner, Sandra Garza, said in June that she blamed those around Trump, specifically his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, for not speaking publicly before the insurrection that the 2020 election was legitimate.
Sicknick was sprayed with a chemical irritant, but the medical examiner did not find evidence that he had any allergic reaction to it. The man who sprayed Sicknick with the irritant, George Tanios, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and trespassing charges in July and could be sentenced to up to a year in prison in December.
Lake has been a close ally of Trump and has openly questioned the legitimacy of President Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Polling has recently shown Lake pulling ahead of her Democratic rival, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, but a Fox News poll released Tuesday showed her only ahead by 1 point.