INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Oliver North announced Saturday that he would not serve a second term as National Rifle Association president, making it clear he had been forced out by the gun lobbys leadership after his own failed attempt to remove the NRAs longtime CEO in a burgeoning divide over the groups finances and media operations.
Please know I hoped to be with you today as NRA president endorsed for reelection. Im now informed that will not happen, North said in a statement that was read by Richard Childress, the NRAs first vice president, to members at the groups annual convention.
North, whose one-year term ends today, did not show up for the meeting, and his spot on the stage was left empty, his nameplate still in its place. His statement was largely met with silence. Wayne LaPierre, whom North had tried to push out, later received two standing ovations.
It was a stunning conclusion to a battle between two conservative and Second Amendment titans North, the retired Marine lieutenant colonel with a ramrod demeanor who was at the center of the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, and LaPierre, who has been battle-tested in the decades since he took up the mantle of gun rights. He has fought back challenges that have arisen over the decades, seemingly emerging unscathed each time. In this latest effort, he pushed back against North, telling members of the NRAs board of directors that North had threatened to release damaging information about him to them and saying it amounted to an extortion attempt.
Hundreds of the NRAs estimated 5 million members packed into the convention center in Indianapolis where the groups annual meetings were being held. Near the end of the two-hour meeting, some members challenged efforts to adjourn and pushed to question the board about controversies involving its financial management, the relationship with its longtime public relations firm and details of what North sought to raise about alleged misspending, sexual harassment and other mismanagement.
