Kari Lake is booed at bad-tempered meeting of the Arizona Republican Party days after chairman is forced to resign

Kari Lake was booed at a wild Arizona Republican Party meeting on Saturday, days after the state chair was forced to resign.

Party officials from across the state gathered in Phoenix for a long-planned meeting and to select a replacement for Jeff DeWit, who resigned after DailyMail.com published a recording of the moment he apparently offered Lake a bribe not to run again to flee.

But the secret audio has divided the party. While some have applauded Lake, a hardline hardliner close to Donald Trump, others accused her of secretly carrying a wire to set up DeWit.

Some of that surfaced when she took the stage at the state meet at a megachurch in Phoenix.

Witnesses said she was booed for a minute as she tried to argue for Gina Swoboda to become Arizona party chairwoman.

Leaked audio captured the moment Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jeff DeWit offered Kari Lake a job or money to step away from politics for two years

“You may not agree with me on everything,” she said, fighting the noise, “but what we can agree on is that Arizona’s elections are a corrupt mess.

“Can we agree that the election is a mess in Arizona? No?’

The outbursts reflect the crisis facing the party in Arizona as different wings bicker over who is responsible for its fundraising problems.

After DeWit resigned, Trump canceled an appearance at the party’s “Freedom Fest” on Friday, which would have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in a crucial election year.

Vera Gebran, who ran for state chairman last year, said she had seen Lake speak around the country and had never received such hostility.

“I think she was booed because she thought she had gone too far,” she said.

Kelli Ward, a former chairwoman, is also caught on video snatching a microphone away from another participant while trying to make a point as onlookers tell her she is no longer in charge.

Lake rose to fame as a TV news anchor in Arizona but has been a polarizing figure since running for governor. She claims the election was stolen from her, but has lost several challengers in court.

Last year, Lake claimed that an unnamed person came to her home and tried to bribe her into not running again.

Republicans from across Arizona gathered at Dream City Church, Phoenix, for their annual mandatory meeting. This year was dominated by the consequences of DeWit’s resignation

Vera Gebran, who is running for presidency in 2023, said she had never received such hostility from Lake and that this was fueled by some attendees thinking she had gone too far.

On Tuesday, DailyMail.com published leaked audio of the conversation with DeWit at a time when she was known to be considering a Senate run.

Lake’s opponents say it must have come from her and accused her of dividing the party by sitting on the audio for 10 months.

In it you hear him say: ‘There are very powerful people who want to keep you out.’

He brings up the idea of ​​a well-paying job and asks her ‘…is there a number where…’ as if asking her price for staying out of politics for two years.

She repeatedly rejects his approach.

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

“This morning I was determined to fight for my position,” DeWit, 51, said Wednesday.

“However, a few hours ago I received an ultimatum from Lake’s team: resign today or a new, more damaging recording will be released.”

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 meeting with Lake came weeks later.

DeWit claimed he simply suggested she postpone her plans for two years so she could 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.