Rachel Maddow: NRA’s ‘Slow-Motion Car Crash’ Would Be #1 Political Story if Not For Impeachment
If not for impeachment, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow argued on Tuesday that the “slow-motion car crash” and internal implosion occurring at the National Rifle Association would be the top political story of the year.
Beginning in the spring of this year, headlines have cropped up over the past months detailing massive unrest and structural issues at the NRA, including a civil war between the organization’s advocacy side and their revenue side, the advertising firm Ackerman McQueen, as the NRA filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma City-based agency after they attempted to depart from the largest pro-gun group in the nation. Things became so bad at the NRA that the organization warned its members in August that they may be forced to file for bankruptcy.
“We have watched this conservative political behemoth, with really no equal in conservative politics, we have watched it collapse at breathtaking speed,” observed Maddow during the Christmas Eve edition of her program. “NRA executives and contractors and vendors have extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from the organization’s budget. From gratuitous payment, to sweetheart deals and opaque financial arrangements. Hundreds of millions of dollars they’ve taken out of the NRA!”
“The NRA appears to be very worried about a ever-widening investigation by the attorney general of the state of New York,” she added. “New York’s Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed more than 90 current and former member of the NRA’s board … If the NRA’s behavior has been bad enough New York could conceivably revoke its non-profit status and shut it down which is what the state of New York just did with Donald Trump’s charitable foundation this year.”
The top MSNBC personality went on to emphasize that this story “is a huge deal,” but is being overshadowed by the nonstop drama surrounding the Trump White House, particularly the president’s Ukraine quid pro quo scandal for which he was recently impeached.
“This would be like a show stopping deal at any other time. The once fearsome NRA, the most powerful entity in conservative Politics, I mean they’re in free fall,” Maddow continued, before noting that in “any other time in any other news environment” the media “would be watching that slow motion car crash endlessly.”
“That would be the biggest political news story in the country for a long time. But with this president in the middle of an impeachment it’s like, you know, just one more tree falling in the forest,” she concluded.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
