UPDATE: NRSC Chairman Steve Daines reportedly told NBC News correspondent Sahil Kapur that he was unaware of the payoff offer by former AZGOP Chair Jeff DeWit.
Kapor posted on X that Daines told him he “Just saw the report on it.”
“I have not listened to it. I saw the social media post, first I’d heard of it,” the NBC journalist said.
.@NRSC Chair @SteveDaines tells me he didn’t know about this in AZ.
"Just saw the report on it.”
“I have not listened to it. I saw the social media post, first I'd heard of it.”
Daines: “Look, I think Kari Lake is a great candidate, and she's gonna win that race in Arizona.” https://t.co/2eFZudHPoD
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 24, 2024
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Jeff DeWit, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP), resigned on Wednesday after an audio recording was leaked revealing him offering Kari Lake money and a job if she stayed out of politics for two years. Now, questions are arising as to who told DeWit to make the offer.
The former chair of AZGOP said “very powerful people” “Back East” were behind it. A source knowledgeable of the situation told The Arizona Sun Times that it was the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), naming Political Director Tim Edson. However, when The Sun Times asked the NRSC if this was true, the organization did not respond.
Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas told The Sun Times, “The massive payola we long suspected flowed beneath the surface in Arizona apparently has been exposed at last.”
DeWit (pictured above) issued a lengthy statement after resigning, criticizing Lake for releasing the audio recording. He said Lake told him if he didn’t resign, she would release even more disturbing audio recordings.
The NRSC, along with its counterpart on the House side, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), has a lengthy history of meddling in primary races to keep conservative candidates they don’t believe are viable out of those races. In August 2022, the NRSC pulled $10 million worth of campaign ads from three candidates running for the U.S. Senate: Blake Masters in Arizona, Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. Despite the loss of funding, Johnson won reelection.
Rumors are swirling that former AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward may replace DeWit, at least for the interim. Ward told The Sun Times, “I don’t think I’ll be asked back and I don’t really want to go back. There are only 10 months to get things together. Whoever takes over has been set up for failure. I hope that wasn’t the deep state plan all along.”
She said the party was in much better shape under her tenure, which ended in 2022.
“The party wasn’t in disarray when I left,” she said. “We had robust state party digital and mail fundraising apparatuses in place (some of the best, if not the best in the US per our vendors), but he canceled those contracts and tried starting over with other entities. … We saved the legislative majority through hard work and determination and even flipped a traditionally Dem seat to Republican.”
Ward expressed concern that DeWit has been “gaslighting” and trying to point the blame at her administration while more serious problems emerge under his.
“I hope the party can recover from the destruction of the last year,” she said.
Her full statement is here.
Lake will hold a press conference tonight at 6 p.m. MST on Rumble.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jeff DeWit” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Far to many people can be bribed and bought with far less money, often they can be moved without any money at all.
This issue is hot. A tell about the MSM will be if they actually report anything on this.
We live in one of the most corrupt countries on the face of the earth. It’s no longer democrats against republicans, it’s Constitutional Americans of all races and nationalities against the uni-party
I believe we are on the doorstep to the re-imaging of America. The globalists and the marxists who stole control of our Nation are not going to give up without a fight. Stock up.