Arizona Republican Senate contender Kari Lake recently called on state GOP chairman Jeff DeWit to resign after a recording surfaced, showing the chairman coercing Lake into ending her Senate campaign by offering her money.
While speaking to an NBC News reporter, Lake said, “He’s gotta resign. We can’t have somebody who is corrupt and compromised running the Republican Party.”
The Daily Mail first obtained the recording, which appears to show DeWit offering to pay Lake money to have her stay out of politics for at least two years.
BREAKING: Arizona Republican Party chair Jeff DeWit caught on secret recording trying to bribe Kari Lake not to run for the Senate.
Holy s***!
"There are very powerful people who want to keep you out," he said.
At one point during the secret recording, Lake was asked to name… pic.twitter.com/9r1DoDzITD
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 23, 2024
“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” DeWit told Lake in the recording, citing that some of the figures were from the “east.”
“Just say, is there a number at which,” DeWit began before being cut off.
“I can be bought? That’s what it’s about,” Lake interjected.
“You can take a pause for a couple of years,” DeWit said. “You can go right back to what you’re doing.”
Lake then pointed out she would not accept a billion dollars to cease her Arizona Senate campaign.
DeWit has served as the chairman of the state Republican Party since January 2023. He previously worked in former President Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
Lake, who ran an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in Arizona in 2022, is a staunch Trump supporter. DeWit has tried to convince Lake to end her bid for the Senate in Arizona, claiming that high-ranking officials within the Republican Party prefer someone else.
Lake rose to prominence in national politics for being an outspoken defender of Trump, having boosted the former president’s claims that the 2020 presidential election was conducted unfairly.
The Arizona Republican Senate contender said she doesn’t have anyone in mind who could replace DeWit.
“I haven’t given it a lot of thought. What I want to do is make sure we get the corrupt people out,” she said.
Alongside Lake, Maricopa County Republican Party Chairman Craig Berland has also called for DeWit’s resignation.
“If this is, in fact, true, I’m asking AZGOP Chairman Jeff DeWit to resign,” Berland said in a statement referencing the recording.
