NRA chief: Clinton will bring ‘permanent darkness’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will bring a “permanent darkness of deceit and despair” to the United States if elected president, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre said Friday.

“Do we really want to put the country through another Clinton term of scandal and deceit and self-serving behavior?” he said while speaking at the NRA-Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum.

{mosads}”She will not bring a dawn of new promise and opportunity. Hillary Rodham Clinton will bring a permanent darkness of deceit and despair, forced upon the American people to endure.”

His comments were part of a speech that attacked Clinton over various controversies, most notably the recent revelation that she had only used a personal email address while at the State Department.

But LaPierre also revived the specter of scandals from President Bill Clinton’s time in office, including Whitewater and the death of White House aide Vince Foster. At one point, he applied the gate suffix — as in Watergate — to nearly every Clinton family controversy since the 1990s.

“Hillary Clinton has more gates than a South Texas cattle ranch,” he joked, to laughter from the crowd.

LaPierre’s speech is timely: Clinton is expected to announce her presidential campaign Sunday and then travel to states with early nominating contests.