Oliver North Forced Out Amid NRA Infighting

The Associated Press reports:

Lt. Col. Oliver North has announced that he will not serve a second term as the president of the National Rifle Association amid inner turmoil in the gun-rights group.

In a statement read to members of the group Saturday, North said he believes a committee should be set up to review the NRA’s finances. He said there is a “clear crisis” and “it needs to be dealt with” if the NRA is to survive.

Fox News reports:

Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president and public face of the National Rifle Association, claims the organization’s board president, Oliver North, is trying to extort him into stepping down as the gun rights group faces infighting and turmoil in its ranks.

In a Thursday letter to NRA board members, LaPierre said North asked him to resign on Wednesday. North told LaPierre the NRA’s longtime advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, planned to send a letter to the board through North that would be “bad for me” unless he resigned.

“Yesterday evening, I was forced to confront one of those defining choices — styled, in the parlance of extortionists — as an offer I couldn’t refuse,” the letter, which was obtained by the Wall Street Journal, read. “I refused it.”

It looks like LaPierre has won this round, possibly because North has been accusing of double-dipping with the ad agency that runs NRA TV.