Explosive audio recording surfaced revealing a top Republican official tried to bribe populist firebrand Kari Lake not to run in Arizona’s Senate race.
Arizona Republican Party chair Jeff DeWit can be heard in a 10-minute audio clip asking Lake to name a price to stay out of politics for two years on behalf of “powerful” Washington interests.
“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” he tells her in a conversation recorded in March 2023. “But they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.”
“So, this conversation never happened,” he added.
Audio reveals the chair of the Arizona Republican Party tried to bribe Kari Lake to not run for the Senate in Arizona.
“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out.”pic.twitter.com/kxnwDf4zpv
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 23, 2024
Lake pushed back, saying, “This is crazy though. They should want me. I’m a great candidate. People love me. These people are corrupt.”
“Well, maybe you’re right,” DeWit agreed. “If you say no, it’s fine, it’s your choice. Don’t tell people.”
Lake said these “corrupt” people in question are going to “try to have me murdered.”
“It’s about being on the team. They want you to be on their team,” DeWit argued.
“But if they’re pushing a globalist agenda, I can’t do that,” Lake replied.
“The ask I got today from back east was: ‘Is there any companies out there or something that could just put her on the payroll to keep her out?’” he explained.
Lake indignantly shot down DeWit’s proposal.
“This is about defeating Trump and I think that’s a bad, bad thing for our country,” she said. “If they’re going to steal the election to make me and our movement go away, I’m not letting them do that.”
DeWit, who was chief operating officer on Trump’s 2020 campaign then framed it differently, asking her what dollar amount she would accept to bow out.
“Just say, is there a number at which….” he began before Lake cut him off.
“I can be bought? That’s what it’s about,” she said.
“You can take a pause for a couple of years,” DeWit insisted. “You can go right back to what you’re doing.”
“No,” she said, adding she wouldn’t take a bribe for a billion dollars.
“This is not about money, it’s about our country,” she said. “I’m willing to tell them that and they’re going to have to fucking kill me to stop me.”
DeWit later lamented that he could be killed if his bribery proposal were to get out to the public.
“I think you should go public with this and then say hey….” Lake suggested.
“No. No, no no no,” DeWit asserted. “Then I turn my key in my car and *boom*.”
“Don’t tell anybody we had this conversation,” he urged.
Lake, who ran as Arizona’s GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2020, revealed the approach days after it happened during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“This is a little bit controversial but I’m going to put this out,” she told the CPAC audience. “They came to my door and tried to bribe me out of getting out of politics. This really happened.”
Now, 10 months later, Lake’s claim has been 100% vindicated.
Polls show Lake in a dead heat against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego for the Senate seat once held by Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat who left her party last year and is now registered as an independent.
Listen to the full audio:
FULL AUDIO https://t.co/VlX7yOwzZo pic.twitter.com/jkOHO8XaDx
— Grace Chong
(@gc22gc) January 23, 2024