Lake wants Arizona GOP chair to resign after leaked audio of him offering her cash to end Senate bid

Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake is urging state party Chairman Jeff DeWit to resign after an audio recording was leaked Tuesday that seems to reveal him offering her money to quit the race.

"He’s gotta resign," Lake said about DeWit at former President Trump’s New Hampshire primary victory party Tuesday night. "We can’t have somebody who is corrupt and compromised running the Republican Party." 

The audio record was published Tuesday, the Daily Mail and was purportedly made in March 2023. 

Lake told Just the News the tape was authentic, and the Daily Mail confirmed its veracity with two sources who also identified the other speaker as DeWit.

A transcript by the Daily Mail of the exchange is below:

"Just say, is there a number at which...." DeWit started.

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," DeWit said.

Lake repeatedly said she wouldn't do it for millions of dollars or a billion dollars. 

"This is not about money, it's about our country," she said.

Lake also said Tuesday night, "I want corruption rooted out of our government. I don't care if it's on the Democrat side or the Republican side: we are going to root out corruption."

Maricopa County GOP Chairman Craig Berland said about the audio, "If this is, in fact, true, I'm asking AZGOP Chairman Jeff DeWit to resign."

The Arizona GOP has not responded since Tuesday afternoon to Just the News' requests for comment about the matter.