A left field attempt to paint the nation’s No. 1 tax foe as a closet Muslim radical was tossed in the trash this weekend when National Rifle Association members voted to reject a recall effort of board member Grover Norquist pushed by his foes led by radio ranter Glenn Beck.
“I greatly appreciate the strong support the NRA membership and the entire Second Amendment community provided in defeating the recall effort,” Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, told Secrets.
Pointing a finger at a champion of the recall effort, he added, “The recall was simply the most recent nonsense from Frank Gaffney—my stalker of the last 17 years. The NRA membership defeated his effort last April and again this year.”
The NRA had backed Norquist, condemning the recall effort as an election year ploy. Beck had also led the fight to dump Donald Trump.
Norquist: The Left Seeks to Tax Guns Out of Existence https://t.co/4HwEanOpzg
— ATR (@taxreformer) May 13, 2016
Elected to the board six times, Norquist found support among top NRA officials and key former government officials like former Reagan-era Attorney General Ed Meese and former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
In an email to Secrets, Todd Rathner, an NRA board of director, said, “I was confident the membership of the NRA would see this recall vote for what it was, an attack on the NRA in a year when we must be focused on critical elections. With the Supreme Court hanging in the balance, I am glad this petty distraction is behind us.”
And Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, said, “Grover Norquist is a great asset to the gun rights movement. It was important to the cause of freedom that he won this unjustified recall effort.”
#SaveTheNRA https://t.co/7mHptYX0D4 pic.twitter.com/tKVLpqZpEw
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) April 28, 2016
Confirmation of his victory came just one week before the annual NRA Convention, taking place in Louisville, Ky., beginning Friday. Donald Trump and other political figures are scheduled to speak. Country star Toby Keith is scheduled to peform.
Beck and Gaffney have led a campaign charging that Norquist is an agent of Muslim extremists. Beck made his case on radio and Gaffney on Twitter and his outfit, the Center for Security Policy, which published Agent of Influence – Grover Norquist and the Assault on the Right.
The NRA probed the clams and rejected them, recommending that members vote against the recall. Gaffney said that the NRA probe didn’t dig deep enough into his claims.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
