LaPierre has no one to blame but himself. And no, it’s not a threat to the organization’s existence. The Teamsters Union has had such oversight for decades, and it’s doing just fine.The former head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, told a New York judge on Monday that the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the gun rights group’s finances would be “equivalent to putting a knife straight through the heart of the organization and twisting it.”
LaPierre’s forceful opposition to the court-appointed oversight mechanism came on the final day of arguments in the second phase of a civil case that New York Attorney General Letitia James brought against the NRA.
Following the trial’s first phase earlier this year, a jury found LaPierre and another deputy liable for misspending millions of dollars on personal expenses. James is seeking an independent monitor to oversee the group’s finances and compliance with whistle-blower policies. She is also seeking to bar LaPierre, the organization’s mouthpiece for decades, from returning to the NRA.
In brief testimony Monday, LaPierre described the appointment of a monitor as an existential threat to the group because it would send a message to prospective members and donors that the NRA was “being surveilled by this attorney general in New York.”
The organization has proven it’s unable to follow the laws, so either you give them oversight, or just shut them down.
But right-wing whiners gotta whine!