(LifeSiteNews) — Arizona GOP Chairman Jeffrey DeWit resigned on Wednesday following leaked audio of a conversation between himself and “America First” senatorial candidate Kari Lake appeared to show the former attempting to bribe the latter to bow out of her U.S. Senate race on behalf of “very powerful people” from “back east” who want to keep her out.
Lake reportedly made the recording in March, 2023, when DeWit showed up on her doorstep with his offer, and has kept it private until now, just days before Arizona’s annual GOP meeting on Saturday where MAGA forces hoped to unseat DeWit.
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
In this abbreviated version of the recording, DeWit begins by asking, “Is there a number at which …”
“… I can be bought?” asked candidate Lake, finishing his sentence for him. “That’s what it’s about.”
“You can take a pause for a couple of years,” urges Dewit. “You can go right back to work again.”
“No,” responded Lake.
“Ten million? Twenty Million? Thirty? No. No. No. A billion? No,” said the resolute Lake.
“This is not about money. This is about our country,” she explained to DeWit. “I am not going to let these people who hate our country tell me not to run.”
“There are very powerful people that want to keep you out,” emphasized DeWit. “They’re willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.”
Lake said that the reason that some big GOP donors want her sidelined is because “They don’t own me.”
“If they’re pushing a globalist agenda, I can’t do that,” she said.
Lake continued:
All these consultants don’t want their payday to end and I don’t want to make a deal with these kinds of people. This is a hill worth dying on. If they’re going to steal the election to make me and our movement go away, I’m not letting them do that. I owe it to the people of Arizona to carry their torch and their voice.
I’m running and I’m going to be the biggest pain in their f****** a** … and they’re going to have to f****** kill me to stop me.
In a video interview with DailyMail.com reporter Rob Crilly published yesterday, Lake had called for DeWit to resign:
He’s got to resign. We can’t have somebody who’s corrupt and compromised running the Republican Party,” said Lake. “I want corruption rooted out of our government.
Kari Lake calls for @AZGOP Chair Jeff DeWit to resign after release of audio in which he can be heard bribing Lake to not run for the U.S. Senate in exchange for a potential job (and its salary): https://t.co/8tF4sodXf3 pic.twitter.com/4XBSzoVyYL
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) January 24, 2024