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President Trump Knows the NRA is in Disarray

8.20.2019

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that President Trump allegedly agrees with the sentiment that the NRA has never been weaker.

The New York Times reports:

“If I were a Republican senator up in 2020, I’d be asking myself three things,” said John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a national group that advocates tougher gun laws. “How many women are in my state who expect me to be voting on gun safety, how many young people are expecting me to do something to protect them, and how bad the dumpster fire is over at N.R.A. headquarters.”

“Mr. Feinblatt also noted that he had never seen the N.R.A., which is under investigation by attorneys general in New York and Washington, D.C., and mired in legal battles and internal riffs, seem “weaker.” He said Republicans were “looking at the polls, and certainly looking at the suburbs and balancing that against whether the N.R.A. has any muscle left.”

“In private, Mr. Trump has echoed Mr. Feinblatt’s bleak assessment of the N.R.A. But aides have warned him that its members are among his voters, and they may be less attuned to the internal drama at the organization than to its mission statement.” (emphasis added)

This isn’t the first time in recent months President Trump has weighed in on the NRA’s multiple scandals. Just days ago, Politico reported that President Trump has “told aides the NRA is vulnerable and on the verge of being ‘bankrupt,’ according to a Republican close to the White House.” In April, as reports were surfacing of financial improprieties and infighting between former NRA President Oliver North and NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre was made public, he tweeted that the NRA “must get its act together quickly, stop the internal fighting, & get back to GREATNESS – FAST!”

Recent polling by Fox News found that NRA’s favorability ratings underwater with the public, with 47 percent of registered voters polled saying that have an unfavorable view of the NRA.