UPDATED: In NRA Showdown, Ollie North Takes On Wayne LaPierre
This year's NRA meeting is threatening to end in outright civil war, as North seeks to oust long-time head Wayne LaPierre.
After just one year serving as the NRA president, Ollie North has created another fine mess after he demanded Wayne La Pierre resign before North released blackmail material on him.
According to the New York Times, it's an open civil war after LaPierre shot back a letter refusing to resign and declaring open warfare on longtime contractor Ackerman McQueen.
La Pierre wrote in a letter to the NRA board, “Yesterday evening, I was forced to confront one of those defining choices — styled, in the parlance of extortionists — as an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Mr. LaPierre wrote. “I refused it.”
The real struggle is not between LaPierre and Oliver North, but between the NRA and NRATV, as the Times explains.
The power struggle within the N.R.A. is an abrupt escalation of a legal battle between the organization and Ackerman McQueen. The Times reported earlier this year that prominent members of the N.R.A. board had grown dismayed at the performance of Ackerman because of its NRATV online media service, which has drifted into right-wing politics far beyond gun rights. Ackerman employs Mr. North, who hosts an NRATV series called “American Heroes.”
So Oliver North stands with his paymaster NRATV, which is a money hole that blasts extreme far-right racist and eliminationist rhetoric, and LaPierre stands with the organization he has led for decades.
There are no heroes here. Maybe this is the right solution:
UPDATE: 4/27/19 10:25 a.m. (- editors)
Oliver North will not stand for re-election as president of the NRA, according to a letter being read to those gathered at the convention.
Whoa.