Kari Lake says daughter urged her to release recording of AZ GOP chair, doesn't have more tapes

Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake said Thursday that her daughter urged her to put out the recording of the former Arizona Republican chairman allegedly offering her money to leave politics. 

Lake told Just the News that she was having dinner with family when they listened to the recording and she said her daughter asked her who was on the recording and if he still worked in Arizona politics.

"I said, 'Not only is he still involved in politics, he leads the Arizona Republican party,' and she looked at me and said, 'Mom, you got to do something about this. Please tell me you're going to do something about this so that man is not in charge of our great Republican Party.' So with my daughter's urging, I said, 'I'm going to put this out.'"

Jeff DeWit resigned as the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party on Wednesday after a leaked audio recording came out of him allegedly offering Lake money to exit the Senate race.

DeWit said that the Lake campaign offered an ultimatum to resign, or she would release more footage. 

"This morning, I was determined to fight for my position," DeWit said in a statement, one day after the audio was released. "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."

Lake denied that anyone on her campaign team threatened DeWit and said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show that she didn't have any more tapes. "No one from the Kari Lake campaign threatened or blackmailed DeWit," Lake said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that DeWit hasn’t recognized how unethical his behavior was and still hasn’t apologized to Arizona Republicans. 

Lake had told the story of her allegedly being bribed to leave politics since March of 2023, but never named who the person until this week. 

The Arizona GOP is expected to hold a statewide meeting over the weekend to elect a new chairman or woman. "I hope that they get somebody good in there who is ethical and willing to fight and make sure that we're set up for an honest election and we're set up over the next 10 months to take on this critical election going forward," Lake said.