C'mon, just admit it: Watching the top execs at the National Rifle Association eat each other alive has been pure bliss. But now the national organization that has singlehandedly helped inflict more unfathomable misery on innocent Americans than perhaps any other might actually help take Donald Trump and Republicans down with it.
As NRA officials have aired their dirty laundry in headline after headline (infighting, corruption, resignations), GOP operatives fear they might not be able to count on the boost of another half a billion dollars in 2020 that the NRA lavished on Republican candidates in 2016. What a shame.
Making matters worse, both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Koch brothers have untethered themselves from their previously muscular support of the Republican party. The Chamber spent considerably less money in 2018 than in previous cycles (just $10 million), so it's a wildcard in 2020. The Koch Network is reportedly taking a pass on 2020, while its Super PAC, Americans for Prosperity, has said it might back Democrat or Republican candidates.
All of that could potentially add up to a gaping hole in GOP campaign coffers along with hamstringing the organization's GOTV efforts in critical battleground states throughout the Rust Belt, like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Politico writes that the nerves of GOP senators are so frayed by the prospect, they are calling on the NRA's usually stealth political operation to publicize its 2020 spending plans.
Terrible, just terrible. ;)