{"id":121626,"date":"2019-04-27T16:09:28","date_gmt":"2019-04-27T20:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=121626"},"modified":"2019-04-27T17:36:38","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T21:36:38","slug":"was-oliver-north-trojan-horse-sent-in-to-destroy-the-nra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=121626","title":{"rendered":"Was Oliver North a <i>Trojan Horse<\/i> sent in to destroy the NRA?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>NRA president says he won&#8217;t serve second term amid turmoil in gun rights group<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Lukas Mikelionis | Fox News<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=6030474002001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\">foxnews.com<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p><strong>Trump celebrates economy, Mueller report during NRA address<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5>Trump takes a victory lap during address; White House chief correspondent John Roberts reports.<\/h5>\n<p class=\"speakable\">National Rifle Association President Oliver North said Saturday that he won\u2019t serve a second term as the leader of the gun-rights group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The resignation came amid internal power struggle among the leadership that has recently engulfed the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/personal-freedoms\/second-amendment\">group<\/a>, culminating in a public fallout on Friday when a letter by NRA\u2019s executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, the effective public face of the organization, was published in which he accused North of pressuring him to resign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease know I hoped to be with you today as NRA president endorsed for reelection. I\u2019m now informed that that will not happen,\u201d North said in a letter read out by a board member Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>He said that the NRA should form a committee to probe the group\u2019s finances, adding that it represents a \u201cclear crisis\u201d that \u201cneeds to be dealt with\u201d if the organization wants to remain a viable organization.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/nra-ceo-wayne-lapierre-allege-oliver-north-tried-to-extorting-him-to-resign\">NRA EXEC WAYNE LAPIERRE ALLEGES OLIVER NORTH TRYING TO FORCE HIM OUT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a separate letter dated Thursday to NRA board members, meanwhile,\u00a0LaPierre said North asked him to resign on Wednesday. North told LaPierre the NRA\u2019s longtime advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, planned to send a letter to the board through North that would be \u201cbad for me\u201d unless he resigned.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1470\/828\/ap18127637558722.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1862\/1048\/ap18127637558722.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 767px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; max-width: 100%; width: 907px;\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/640\/320\/ap18127637558722.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" alt=\"National Rifle Association President Oliver North said Saturday that he won\u2019t serve a second term as the leader of the gun-rights group.&lt;br data-cke-eol=&quot;1&quot;&gt;\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<h5>National Rifle Association President Oliver North said Saturday that he won\u2019t serve a second term as the leader of the gun-rights group. <span class=\"copyright\">(AP)<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYesterday evening, I was forced to confront one of those defining choices \u2014 styled, in the parlance of extortionists \u2014 as an offer I couldn\u2019t refuse,\u201d the letter, which was obtained by the Wall Street Journal, read. \u201cI refused it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that North said \u201cthe letter would not be sent \u2014 if I were to abruptly resign,\u201d noting that \u201cHe stated that he could \u2018negotiate\u2019 an \u2018excellent retirement\u2019 for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A lawsuit filed by the NRA against Ackerman last month claims the company overbilled the group and that North had a conflict of interest because Ackerman paid him.<\/p>\n<p>LaPierre accused North of having \u201ccontractual and financial loyalties\u201d to Ackerman in addition to his criticism that the NRA\u2019s messaging has moved too far from the original mission of gun safety and the outdoors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs you know, the N.R.A. has over this past year taken steps to strengthen its efforts to document and verify compliance by our vendors with our purchasing practices and their contracts,\u201d LaPierre wrote in his letter on Thursday to the board. \u201cWe\u2019ve met extraordinary resistance from one vendor \u2014 Ackerman McQueen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>North\u2019s reign at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/ocasio-cortez-slams-nra-after-groups-official-says-real-america-will-reject-her-socialist-policies\">organization\u00a0<\/a>lasted less than a year and shows the NRA\u2019s internal support for LaPierre who became a symbol of gun-rights movement in the U.S. after being the public face of the group and its policies for decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWayne has the confidence of a strong majority of the board,\u201d Todd Rathner, a board member from Arizona, told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey trust him. They know that he\u2019s the face of the NRA. And quite frankly I think that anybody that wants to remove him, they\u2019re going to have to get through this board first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The turmoil in the organization played out as it held its 148th annual conference in Indianapolis, with President Trump is headlining the convention Friday and promising to protect gun rights in the 2020 elections and efforts by Democrats to disarm law-abiding Americans.<\/p>\n<p><i>Fox News\u2019 Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/nra-president-says-he-wont-serve-second-term-amid-turmoil-in-gun-rights-group\">https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/nra-president-says-he-wont-serve-second-term-amid-turmoil-in-gun-rights-group<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NRA president says he won&#8217;t serve second term amid turmoil in gun rights group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}