The real reason NRA leaders are suddenly eating each other alive
Yesterday, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre publicly claimed that NRA President Oliver North and NRA leaders were attempting to force him out of the organization. This came even as North and others asserted that they’d caught LaPierre wasting excessive amounts of NRA money on things like clothing. Today, North announced that he won’t be seeking reelection, due to LaPierre. This kind of brinksmanship is surreal, but there’s good reason for it.
It’s not that Oliver North suddenly cares if Wayne LaPierre is dipping into the NRA’s till. North is a notorious criminal in his own right, and the NRA is one big con game aimed at dishonestly scaring people into buying more guns. No one who cares about ethics joins the leadership of a group like the NRA. But there are two huge storylines playing out right now with regard to the NRA’s fate.
This week we finally saw Russian spy Maria Butina sentenced to prison. This means that the bulk of her cooperation work with the government is complete, including whatever she gave up on the NRA’s financial ties to Russia, or the NRA’s crimes in general. This means the NRA has to worry that the FBI could crack down on it at any time. And even if corrupt Attorney General William Barr manages to stop that federal probe, NBC News reported yesterday that the New York Attorney General is preparing to investigate the NRA for being a phony nonprofit – and there’s nothing that Barr or Donald Trump can do to stand in the way of that probe.
It’s clear that someone or something is going down here. Maybe the entire NRA will be forced to go under. Perhaps all of its current leaders will end up being taken down. Or maybe just one NRA leader will end up taking the criminal rap for the organization’s antics. The likes of Oliver North and Wayne LaPierre each appear to believe that if they can expose the other guy’s crimes, it’ll be the other guy who takes the fall when the authorities move in. That’s not really how things work, of course, but these folks are desperate enough to try taking each other down as a last ditch effort to save themselves.
