When Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning that the people at the National Rifle Association are "Great People and Great American Patriots [who] love our Country and will do the right thing," what he really meant is that the NRA will do right by Trump—the only 'country' he truly cares about.
Before the reappearance of NRA representatives Wayne LaPierre and Dana Loesch in recent days, the group had been in hiding, specifically because it did extra right by the Donald in 2016—spending far more than it had promoting Republicans in previous election cycles. Despite declining membership in recent years that has resulted in tens of millions in lost revenues, Mike Signorile writes:
The NRA, through a channel that doesn’t require it to disclose donors, spent a record amount in 2016: $55 million, including $30 million backing Trump, triple the amount it spent on Romney.
That, among other things, has garnered the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is examining whether the NRA effectively served as a money-laundering vehicle for Russia in 2016. As McClatchy wrote last month:
The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy.
An effort by NRA member and conservative activist Paul Erickson to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian president Vladimir Putin is also being scrutinized, according to New York Times reporting in December.
In many ways, the NRA would have provided the ideal vehicle for Russian influence peddling, specifically because the NRA's decades-long campaign to divide Americans amongst themselves aligns perfectly with Putin's goals.
As social science researcher Brené Brown explained in her book Braving the Wilderness:
Of all of the lobbying organizations I have studied over the past 20 years, not one of them has done a better job using fear and false dichotomies than the NRA. Today's NRA rhetoric employs the ominous 'they' and forces 'us v. them' language over and over. Allow anyone to buy any type of gun and amunition when and wherever they want, or they will break down your door, take away your guns, crush your freedom, kill everyone you love, and put an end to the American way.
They are after us.
They are coming.
Brown grew up in a hunting family and supports responsible gun ownership but abhors the way the NRA has forced the false dichotomy of "you're either with us or you're against us" on Americans.
The NRA's LaPierre reemerged Thursday on the CPAC stage to push that exact all-or-nothing argument.
"If they seize power ... our American freedoms could be lost and our country will be changed forever," he said. "The first to go will be the Second Amendment."
They, meaning Democrats, will destroy America. Interesting. Here's how Mueller's 37-page indictment describes the troll-farm operation of 13 Russians who worked to influence the 2016 cycle:
"Defendant ORGANIZATION had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election" using "what it called 'information warfare against the United States of America'...” (emphasis added)
That's also exactly how U.S. intelligence chiefs described Russia's goals for the upcoming midterm elections during a Senate hearing last week.
“We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee at its annual hearing on worldwide threats. (emphasis added)
As the NRA’s LaPierre said from the CPAC stage:
"Socialism is a movement that loves a smear."
If there's anyone who knows about 'smear' campaigns, it's LaPierre. And the Russians.
