Kari Lake, a leading Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, revealed a rejected “bribe” offer from “powerful people back East” as a motivating factor for her Senate run.
The offer, implied by former Arizona GOP Chair Jeff DeWit, led Lake to record their conversation, emphasizing her determination to remain in politics.
She criticized DeWit’s ethics and highlighted the need for ethical leadership, pointing to Gina Swoboda, who replaced DeWit, as someone focused on restoring honest elections.
“It’s really a bad time. I happened to be really busy. I was getting ready to pack for CPAC; I was finishing up my book, and he just showed up at my door, and I thought that was really odd,” Lake said.
“So I recorded it because I thought, ‘Well, maybe there’s going to be a threat here.’ He had said a couple things on the phone about – we talked a little bit about the Senate race – and I said, ‘Look, if you’re coming over to talk me out of it, I am not going to be talked out it, and I’m really leaning towards doing that.’ ‘No, what I have to tell you has to be said in person.’ So… my spidey senses went off, and I said, ‘I need to record this,’ and I did.”
“When… the ‘powerful people back East’ want you out of politics, I don’t know, that seems to be a sign to stay in politics, if you ask me,” she said.
“So I sat on that, I never really did anything, I never listened to it until about a week and a half ago, and I was sitting in my dining room table eating dinner with my daughter and husband, and I hit play, and we listened to that, and our jaws dropped down to the floor. It was so much worse than I even remembered it being.”
An internal poll from Lake’s campaign indicated that the recording had improved her standing with Arizonans.
“We’re in, in my opinion, the final nine or ten months of this country, and Arizona is a critical state to have great leadership in this Republican Party; leadership that is focused on making sure our elections are run properly and fairly, leadership that is ethical, that will help the great candidates do what they have to do to win, to get a victory for Republicans, not somebody who’s trying to keep a great candidate out, who’s taking bribes or willing to offer bribes to people,” Lake said.
“And so we have a great person leading the party now; her name is Gina Swoboda, and her mission in life is to restore honest elections.”
Lake expressed concerns about biased media coverage but noted that the majority of respondents either maintained or improved their opinion of her after hearing the recording.
“You know, they don’t know how to cover me, much like President Trump. The news in Arizona is really bad, and all they do is try to turn every story into a negative story on me, so we threw that question in there, and it shows that about 85% of people either their opinion of me hasn’t changed or it’s gone up,” Lake said.
“And only 15% said the opposite. Those are most likely, you know, hardcore Liberal Democrats who deep in their heart probably think better of me, but they couldn’t say it in the poll.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Statement from Chairman @JeffDeWitAZ
#AZGOP pic.twitter.com/qxKd2Pqlp6
— Arizona Republican Party (@AZGOP) January 24, 2024
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