Arizona Republican chair Jeff DeWit RESIGNS over bombshell audio bribing Kari Lake to stay out of office

Jeff DeWit resigned as chairman of the Arizona Republican Party on Wednesday, 24 hours after DailyMail.com published leaked audio in which he offered Kari Lake a job or money to quit politics.

On the tape you can hear him explain that powerful people would offer her a job or money if she stayed out of politics for two years.

In his resignation statement, he accused Lake of framing him by recording a private conversation.

“This morning I was determined to fight for my position,” said DeWit, 51. “However, a few hours ago I received an ultimatum from Lake’s team: Resign today or face the release of a new, more damaging recording.”

He said he resigned in the hope that it would put an end to her attacks on him.

DeWit was the chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. The Trump administration nominated him to a senior role at NASA, and in January last year he took over the Arizona Republican Party.

The leaked audio, from a conversation in early March 2023, sent shockwaves through Republican circles.

A day earlier, Lake, 54, had demanded his resignation. As she arrived at Donald Trump’s campaign party in Nashua, New Hampshire, she told DailyMail.com that the American people had had enough.

‘TThe truth is all coming out now,” she said.

At the time of their conversation last March, it was known that Lake was considering a run for Senate. Days after DeWit’s approach, she went public with her accusations that powerful forces were trying to stop her, but never revealed who was behind it.

On Monday, Arizona talk show host Garret Lewis appointed DeWit, who was elected chairman of the party last January.

Audio obtained by DailyMail.com revealed how he made his offer at her home in early March last year.

“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” you hear him say.

Later in the ten-minute recording, he asks her for “a song” and comes up with the idea of ​​finding her a job that could keep her busy for two years.

At the time, it was known that Lake was running for Senate.

In his resignation statement, DeWit claimed he had simply proposed delaying her campaign for two years to run for governor again.

“It was a suggestion made in good faith, in the belief that it could benefit both its future prospects and the party’s overall strategy,” he said.

He admitted he “said things I regret” but accused Lake of “misleading tactics” and of releasing a “selectively edited” audio recording.

“The recording, from more than 10 months ago, is not only taken out of context, but also undermines the integrity of private conversations that are critical to party leadership,” he said.

In it, DeWit tells Lake, one of the most public faces of the former president’s MAGA movement and a woman often mentioned as a 2024 vice presidential pick, that he thinks Trump will lose and that it is time to to make room for someone else.

After asking her not to discuss the conversation with anyone, he makes his first offer.

“So the question I got from back east today was, ‘Are there any companies or something that can put her on the payroll to keep her out?’

Lake reacts indignantly.

“This is about beating Trump and I think that’s a bad thing for our country,” she said.

At the time of their conversation, Lake was publicly considering a run for the U.S. Senate.

And the episode reveals the tensions that arose after she refused to accept defeat in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race.

She emerged as a national figure and became a regular on Fox News, repeating Trump’s election denial. That put her at odds with the more traditional wing of the Republican Party, which feared that a new breed of Trump loyalists could alienate major donors.

She announced her run in October.

In the new 10-minute audio clip, DeWit is asked for confidentiality.

“If you say no, that’s fine, it’s your choice, don’t tell people,” he tells Lake.

He later explains the rationale behind the offer.

“I think what it really comes down to for a lot of people is it’s not about control or agenda,” he says. “It’s about the ability to raise money to win.”

Lake sticks to her guns.

‘I don’t want to make a deal with these kinds of people. This is a hill worth dying on,” she said.

“I’m not… if they’re going to steal the elections to make me and our movement disappear. I won’t let them do that.

“I owe it to the people of Arizona to carry their torch and their voices.”