Huge Political Scandal (that you will probably never see on the establishment news)

[Yazata]

Arizona state Republican party chairman Jeff DeWitt recorded trying to bribe MAGA-aligned AZ Senate candidate Kari Lake to drop out of the Senate race. He says that he is representing "very powerful people back east" who he declines to name (the establishment "never-Trump" element in the Republican party? Or something more sinister?) who want her out and will pay her a large sum of money (millions) to withdraw.

If I am hearing it right, there might have been a death threat in there. Lake asks, are they going to have me killed? And DeWitt doesn't dismiss it but rather says that the cartels are in all 50 states.

When this broke yesterday and the recording was released, there was some question whether the recording was real or a deep fake of some kind. But today DeWitt more or less acknowledged it was real and resigned. (He claims it was recorded months ago when she worked for his company, that it's selectively edited, that she is on a mission to destroy him and that he is the victim. He says he is considering legal action against her.)

What is said to be the full conversation is in the link below. An interesting bit is right about the 9 minute mark towards the end, when Lake suggests he go public with who is putting him up to this, and he (jokingly?) says "no, no, no!'", that if he did that then his car might blow up when he turns the key.

DC politics at work, using plays straight out of Putin's playbook. (They should try novichok.) This is why the swamp must be drained. (Does anyone think that situation is really any better at the FBI and the DoJ?)

https://twitter.com/ULTRA_MAJESTY/status...9722805485

https://www.azfamily.com/2024/01/24/ariz...kari-lake/

[Syne]

Chairman Jeff DeWit called the secret audio recording from Lake “deceptive” and “a selectively edited audio recording of our private conversation.” He went on to suggest that Lake had “orchestrated” the exchange in an attempt to “have control over the state party.” Lake’s campaign responded in a statement to The Daily Wire by denying having “threatened or blackmailed” DeWit.
- https://www.dailywire.com/news/az-gop-ch...ccusations

[Zinjanthropos]

Whoa! This is a sticky one. Dewitt talks of big players in East and Lake makes it a point to mention many times that everything she does is for the American people but doesn’t turn the guy in immediately. He talks of being car bombed while she shrugs off a potential bullet. Only thing I can’t figure out is how someone in Dewitt’s position could be so stupid.

Mexican drug cartels get a few mentions, made me think this time around that Trump will build that wall. I think they’re both crooked but she looks better when dishonest.

[Yazata]

What I'm most interested in is who these "very powerful people back east" are.

I'm not convinced that attempting to bribe a political candidate to drop out of a race is that huge a crime. It's kind of the reverse of offering political contributions to keep the candidate in the race. I was looking through the USCode and it looks like most of the bribery sections concern bribery of public officials.

But that being said, knowing who this is could be politically devastating, just from a publicity perspective.

Kari Lake sounded convinced that it was opponents of Trump who wanted her out. Which might very well be true.

But what caught my attention was DeWitt's mention of cartels when Lake wondered if the people offering bribes might have her killed if she didn't take the 'hint', and his own seeming fear that if he went public, he might be killed.

Like Trump, Kari Lake is a big proponent of the US restoring control of its wide-open southern border. If she was elected to the Senate, she would be a certain vote for building Trump's wall, tightening up asylum rules, allowing the Border Patrol to do its job and so on. And the Mexican cartels make billions from pouring drugs across the border and from human trafficing. It's an industry in Mexico, perhaps Mexico's largest.

So it doesn't seem to be too outlandish a conspiracy theory to imagine that the cartels are funneling huge sums of money into Washington DC to keep the border wide open the way they like it. DeWitt said repeatedly that it's all about money and that Lake doesn't have anything in that regard to offer the "very powerful people". But the cartels obviously do, they are awash in cash. I've often wondered why so many politicians from both parties are so resistant to doing anything about the border. If many of them are on the take from organized crime, it makes sense.

It might be a conspiracy theory, but that's my worry. I have no way of knowing how likely it is, but I'd really love to see some investigation of the possibility. That said, I think that we can all predict it will never happen. If my suspicions happen to be true, then the top management levels of the FBI and the Justice Department are probably up to their eyeballs in it.