A GOP official tried to induce Kari Lake to stay out of the U.S. Senate race in Arizona by paying her or providing a high-paying job instead, audio obtained by the Daily Mail reveals.
Jeff DeWit, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, who previously had been appointed to serve as a NASA official in the Trump administration, is heard in the March 2023 recording asking Lake what it would take for her to forego a run.
SCOTTSDALE, AZ – JAN. 28: Jeff DeWit, a candidate for chairman of the Republican Party of Arizona, speaks during the Republican Party of Arizona Statutory Meeting at Dream City Church on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2022 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Rebecca Noble for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” he said, referring to someone “back east.”
“They’re willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way. So, this conversation never happened,” he said.
Lake was not receptive to DeWit’s offer to name her price and ultimately chose to run.
In the recorded conversation, she calls the unnamed “back east” people “corrupt.”
“Well, maybe you’re right,” DeWit responded, before continuing “This never happened. I’ll get myself in trouble.”
“If you say no, which its fine, its your choice, don’t tell people.”
Lake discussed the attempted bribe when appearing on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Fourth of July Special, where she teased her Senate run and spoke about her book:
“Originally, I was going to name the book, I was going to title it Unafraid, and then I had a pretty high profile person come to my door and offer me money to put my movement on hold and my political career on hold — offered me a cushy job, nice paycheck, position on a board, and I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I left a cushy job…I’m not motivated by money,’” Lake recounted. “And then the conversation turned, ‘Well, what would it take for you to not run for office again, at least until after 2024?’ And I thought, ’Oh my gosh, this is the kind of stuff of movies. If these people, the political elite, want me out of politics so badly that they’re willing to bribe me, that tells me I need to stay in. So that’s when I decided to add the subtitle Just Getting Started just to give them a little bit of a fear because I’m just getting started,” she laughed.
In the March recording, Lake pushed back on DeWit’s offer, relayed from “back east,” of a do-nothing job in exchange for her sitting out the race.
“So 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 said.
“This is about defeating Trump, and I think that’s a bad, bad thing for our country,’ an indignant Lake said.
The Mail relays:
‘Just say, is there a number at which….’ he begins.
Lake cut in: ‘I can be bought? That’s what it’s about.’
‘You can take a pause for a couple of years. You can go right back to what you’re doing.’
Lake repeatedly rebuffs him and says she wouldn’t do it for a billion dollars.
‘This is not about money, it’s about our country,’ she says.
Neither DeWit’s nor Lake’s office responded to requests for comment from the Mail.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
