Sullied ex-AZ GOP chair Jeff DeWit should rat out 'powerful people' behind Kari Lake offer

It may look as if the disgraced and humiliated former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, Jeff DeWit, has hit rock bottom.

But in fact, he may be on top of the world.

DeWit got unmasked on a leaked tape in which he clumsily offers failed governor candidate and current U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake a lucrative job opportunity to step away from politics for a few years in exchange for … “is there a number … .”

The offer was a Republican power play to get Lake out of the picture.

Leaking the taped conversation with Lake was a power play to get DeWit out of the picture.

Seems like the end for DeWit, but is it?

And it worked. Though not always in Lake’s favor.

In a statement announcing his resignation, DeWit said he was going to fight to keep his position until “I received an ultimatum from Lake’s team: resign or face the release of a new, more damaging recording. I am truly unsure of its contents, but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk. I am resigning as Lake requested.”

Doesn’t exactly make Lake look like an angel, does it?

Still, it seems like the end of it all for DeWit.

But is it?

DeWit knows who the 'powerful people' are

In the damning recording with Lake, a bumbling DeWit says in part, “There are very powerful people that want to keep you out.”

He adds, “They’re willing to put their money where their mouth is in a very big way.”

He says these very powerful people are “back East.”

Why I'd wear a bug detector: Around Kari Lake

DeWit in the recording isn’t asking Lake to step aside as a personal favor, or as something she should do altruistically for the good of the Republican Party. He’s offering a lucrative deal from “very powerful people” “back East.”

Only now the tape is out and DeWit has been ruined. Annihilated.

He should say wanted him to approach Lake

Except … DeWit knows a thing or two about those very powerful people back East.

And those very powerful people know that he knows.

Which puts the disgraced DeWit kind of in the catbird seat.

The right and honorable thing for DeWit to do, of course, would be to expose the “powerful people” he talks about on the tape. That is what DeWit should do.

He should put country over party, particularly since it was someone from that very Republican Party who just demolished his political career and personal reputation (with his willing participation, of course).

DeWit could go a very long way toward seeing his reputation rise from the ashes if he were to identify those who approached him to make the offer to Lake, exposing the dark underbelly of politics in a way that might even generate some change.

If he chooses not to do that, however, and given what he knows, and given that those “powerful people” know that he knows, I can’t help but wonder if someone from “back East” soon will be making a version of the same pitch to DeWit … that he made to Lake.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jeff DeWit should rat out those behind Kari Lake offer