The Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party has resigned following the release of an audio tape revealing that he tried to bribe Kari Lake into not running for Senate.
The audio can be heard here.
FULL AUDIO https://t.co/VlX7yOwzZo pic.twitter.com/jkOHO8XaDx
— Grace Chong 🇺🇸 (@gc22gc) January 23, 2024
The Daily Mail had the scoop:
An audio recording obtained by DailyMail.com reveals the extraordinary moment when what appears to be Arizona’s top Republican official tried to bribe populist firebrand Kari Lake not to run in the state’s Senate race.
Jeff DeWit, 51, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, can be heard asking Lake, a close ally of Donald Trump, to name her price to stay out of politics for two years.
‘There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,’ he tells her in a conversation recorded at the start of March last year.
DeWit tells Lake, 54, one of the most public faces of the former president’s MAGA movement and a woman frequently spoken of as a 2024 vice-presidential pick, that he thinks Trump will lose and it is time to make way for someone else.
DeWit claims he has been set up. In a statement announcing his resignation, he said that the tape was “selectively edited” in a “deceptive” way, according to a local CBS affiliate. He further stated that “despite the conversation appearing against Lake, she was actually employed by him in DeWit’s private company. DeWit claims since that conversation, that Lake has been on a ‘mission to destroy’ him.
“I said things I regret, but I realize when hearing Lake’s recording that I was set up. I believe she orchestrated this entire situation to have control over the state party,” the statement read in part.
The former state chairman said his exit was part of an “ultimatum” and added that the Lake campaign threatened to unveil “more damaging” audio.
He did not say what the audio pertained to.
WONT WORK, NO