Are Republicans Covering for Trump, or for Themselves?
If the N.R.A. was compromised by Russia, the whole party’s in trouble.
Then, on Monday, we learned of the arrest of Maria Butina, who is accused of being a Russian agent who infiltrated the National Rifle Association, the most important outside organization in the Republican firmament. Legal filings in the case outline a plan to use the N.R.A. to push the Republican Party in a more pro-Russian direction.
Butina, 29, appears to have worked for Alexander Torshin, a Russian politician linked to organized crime who is the target of U.S. sanctions. She developed a romantic relationship with Paul Erickson, a conservative operative close to the N.R.A. (Court filings cite evidence it was insincere on her part.) Erickson, in turn, wrote to a Trump adviser in May 2016 about using the N.R.A. to set up a back channel to the Kremlin.
The young Russian woman clearly understood the political significance of the N.R.A. In one email, court papers say, she described the central “place and influence” of the N.R.A. in the Republican Party. Through her pro-gun activism, she became a fixture of the conservative movement and was photographed with influential Republican politicians. A Justice Department filing quotes Torshin as comparing her to another young, famous Russian agent: “You have upstaged Anna Chapman. She poses with toy pistols, while you are being published with real ones.”
If the N.R.A. as an organization turns out to be compromised, it would shake conservative politics to its foundation. And this is no longer a far-fetched possibility. “I serve on both the Intelligence Committee and the Finance Committee,” Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, told me. “So I have a chance to really look at this through the periscope of both committees. And what I have wondered about for some time is this whole issue of whether the N.R.A. is getting subverted as a Russian asset.”
Okay, that’s about as much of that bullshit as I can stand.
I understand what The New York Times is trying to do here. David Hogg has been doing the same shit all week on Twitter.
Fun fact children are worth about 66 Rubles or $1.05 to Sen. $3,300,000 AKA Marco Ruble AKA @marcorubio
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) July 20, 2018
Ha, hey @NRA you might want to rt this photo of your freind https://t.co/jCbG40xLcV
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) July 20, 2018
Anything and everything is Russia this and Russia that.
They think that the NRA and by extension gun rights is like a Jenga tower, if they can pull out the Russia block, everything will come crashing down.
They want to convince us, having convinced themselves, that the NRA is just a shell group of very loud activists who hold disproportionate power that gun owners, by and large, don’t agree with.
That is because when they look in the mirror, they see a bunch of loud “professional” activists and the people that bankroll them, but the not the millions they claim to speak for.
What they don’t want to hear is the truth about the NRA and NRA supporting Americans.
(Shannon, David, the NYT, write this down and remember that I said it.)
WE DO NOT GIVE A FUCK.
Clear?
We do not give a fuck what some Russian redhead said or did with the NRA.
We care about our gun rights. My dad was a life member when David Hogg was still swimming around in his dad’s ball sack. I’ve been an NRA member since I was old enough to vote.
We supported the NRA through Heller (2008) and McDonald (2010), which were major victories in our favor.
The GOP listens to the NRA because the NRA brings the votes. There are lots of groups that bring the money, NRA members show up at the polls and if you fuck over our gun rights, we will burn you. We do not forget and we rarely forgive.
As long as you keep coming for our guns. As long as you keep trying to ban high capacity magazines, assault weapons, or whatever has become the target of your hate du jour, we will support the NRA as long as the NRA counters you.
If you honestly believe that any NRA member is going to say “oh well, the NRA took money from the Russians and gave it to Trump and now the NRA is just a pupped organization for Putin, I’m going to cancel my membership” you are dumb as a box of shit.
Putin could have blown Wayne LaPierre personally and we’ll still back the NRA as long as the NRA fights off you gun grabbers, and the GOP will still listen to the NRA as long as the NRA can bring the numbers on election day.
And all that assumes the worst of everything you said is 100% true.
Right now, there has been so much lying, duplicitous, biased bullshit that I don’t know what is true anymore, but what I do know is I’m not going to take anything you say at face value.
The only thing Russia could do to destroy the NRA and make its members quit is to do exactly what you want the NRA to do and “compromise” on a bill that allows the banning of assault weapons.
So between an NRA that fights for gun rights and may have taken some money from a shell corporation that may be a front for Russia to donate to American PACs, and allowing you gun banners and gun grabbers to gain an inch at the Federal level, I’ll back the NRA every time.
I’ve met 0 people in the real world who believe the NRA or anyone else “colluded” with the Russians.
The NRA has Members in many other Countries. Why single out one Russian woman who is trying to get gun rights for her Countrymen and women? How else to learn how to do it than to consult with the oldest and leading gun rights organization in the World?
That’s ok ron. Most of us real Americans think you, like most libtard socialist are Russian plants. So I guess you can go pound sand.
If I was Putin and I wanted to corrupt the American presidential election, I would not use an organization with only 4 to 6 million member as my vehicle. I’d use a much larger organization directly involved in American politics, and one that was philosophically in alignment with the former soviet union, after all Putin is a former KGB officer. I’d also pick an organization known for its monetary greed, and was chronically short of money. If it was me, I’d go after the DNC.
” If it was me, I’d go after the DNC.”
And Putin already did.
He paid those Clinton whores $150 million in “donations to their “foundation” and in “speaking fees”, and if that Browder story is true, stolen Russian $ in tens if not hundreds of millions went to her campaign.
PS “My dad was a life member when David Hogg was still swimming around in his dad’s ball sack. ”
AMEN, F*CK THE HOGG.
Benefactor Life Member. Member since 1982. I have not changed my mind. The left have been trying to destroy us for decades. I don’t believe a word of their bullshit.