Exclusive — Kari Lake: Failed ‘Bribe’ for Me to Stay Out of Politics Exactly Why I Needed to Run

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday that the “bribe” to stay out of politics she rejected from “powerful people back East” served as a prime example of why she must run for Senate.

Lake, a former Fox 10 Phoenix anchor who is the leading republican Senate candidate in Arizona, joined host and Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle for a 20-minute segment on Saturday’s program.

Boyle asked Lake to break down the bombshell recording from before she declared her candidacy, in which former Arizona GOP Chair Jeff DeWit seemed to imply a bribe offer from “powerful people” somewhere “back East.” DeWitt noted the people who wanted to “keep her out” were “willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.”

While speaking with Boyle, Lake recalled the nearly year-old exchange with DeWit, saying he suddenly called her that day and notified her he was stopping by her home to discuss something that could not be talked about in a phone call.

“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 recounted. “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.”

LISTEN: 

Lake, who emphatically rejected the “bribe” in the audio recording, would later emphasize to Boyle that she viewed the situation as a “sign” of why she should remain in politics.

“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.”

She slammed DeWit, declaring that someone “who is compromised like that, who’s willing to make bribes like that, who has that type of ethics” cannot be the leader of the Arizona Republican Party.

Notably, he resigned on January 24. In his resignation, he said he received an ultimatum from Lake’s team that he needed to resign or another private recording would be released. He has been replaced by Gina Swoboda, whom Lake praised.

“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 stated. “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.”

On Friday, Punchbowl News published an internal poll from Lake’s campaign, showing that the recording has improved Lake’s standing with Arizonans who have heard it. The JL partners polling memo noted that out of the 70 percent of respondents “who had seen or heard about it, voters said this had improved rather than worsened their view of Lake by a margin of 2 to 1.”

Lake told Boyle the question was included in the poll “because the fake news was trying… to make me the bad guy.”

“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.”