Kari Lake. NBC News/AP.
The chairman of the Arizona Republicans has resigned after audio leaks showed an apparent bribery attempt to get Senate candidate Kari Lake to drop out of the race. NBC News. Jeff Dewit offered Kari Lake a lucrative job in the private sector if she were to take a two year "pause" on her political ambitions. Dewit resigned saying that he did so to avoid having an even more damaging tape released. Dewit claims he did nothing wrong as was only trying to protect the party and Lake, who Dewit claims won't win the Senate race, despite it being a three way race. Dewit was quoted in the audio as saying "there are very powerful people that want to keep you out". Who "they" are is unclear but Dewit said it was "people out east". Lake responded to the offer by saying she "couldn't be bought".
My Comment:
This goes to show how deep the rot is in the Republican Party. Bribing a popular candidate to not run is not the action of a party that is healthy. And the fact that Dewit tried to defend his actions here is beyond parody.
Was this a crime? I am not sure. I am not an expert on Arizona law of course. Plus, Kari Lake is currently a private citizen. So he can't be charged with attempting to bribe a public official. And I don't know if this kind of quid-pro-quo is illegal or not. But if it isn't? It absolutely should be.
This incident does raise more questions then it answers. Who were the folks "out east" that wanted Lake to drop out? What were their names? Why do they think that Lake can't win despite it being a three person race and that Lake only lost the Governor's race because her opponent, Katie Hobbs, was literally in charge of the election? Who is willing to give Lake a lucrative job and what was the job? Perhaps some of that information would have been revealed if Dewit hadn't resigned in the second audio.
Dewit is claiming the audio is out of context and edited, which is the classic move when any damaging audio is released. Is it possible there was some context that was removed? Probably not. I can't imagine any context where what he said was acceptable.
This has improved my impression of Kari Lake. She has proven that she can't be bought, which is probably why she had the audio released in the first place. This is about as good of a story she could get if the electorate is concerned about possible corruption. If she would turn down bribes as a private citizen, then she would presumably do it as a Senator for Arizona.
It also means that Lake is probably going to be the candidate for the GOP in 2024 in the senate race. And it also means she has a decent chance of winning. Most polls have her tied with the Democratic candidate, Ruben Gallego, regardless if Krysten Sinema runs. This scandal should put her over the edge given how she handled the scandal.
As for the Republicans, this was a good argument for electing outsiders like Kari Lake in the first place. It's clear that there is a sickness deep in the party that is more concerned with electing the "right" people that will play the game instead of people that actually represent the people. It's why we can't get anything done on the border, it's why Biden hasn't been impeached and it's why the GOP simply lied down and died when the Democrats stole the 2020 election. Hopefully by electing people like Lake we can finally start to change that.
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