NRA Lobbyist Will Co-Host Hillary Clinton Fundraiser

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has called her support for gun control laws a key differentiator from her opponent Bernie Sanders, who she claims isn’t tough enough on the industry. But in mid-March, a Clinton campaign fundraiser will be co-hosted by a lobbyist whose clients have included the National Rifle Association (NRA).

As David Sirota reported Monday in the International Business Times, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is a co-host and the guest of honor at a fundraising lunch in the nation’s capital on March 21.

One of the other co-hosts is Jeff Forbes of the lobbying firm Forbes-Tate.

Forbes has represented the NRA since 2009 and as of the last quarter of 2015 was still registered to lobby for the organization. On his lobbying disclosure, Forbes wrote that he was signed up to lobby for “Issues related to 2nd Amendment rights, regulation and gun control, and tax and appropriations related to same; issues related to corporate tax reform.” [Update at 4:41 p.m. ET: Jennifer Baker, director of public affairs for the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, emails us to say that “Jeff Forbes is no longer an NRA consultant.”]

During the 2013 push for universal background checks, Forbes was one of a phalanx of Democratic Party lobbyists employed by the NRA to kill that legislation.

Forbes is an alumnus of the Bill Clinton administration and later worked as chief of staff to former Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus.

Another co-host is Steve Elmendorf, who has lobbied for Goldman Sachs and the U.S.-Colombian Free Trade Agreement.

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Top photo: A mock police tape placed outside the National Rifle Association headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, during an August 2014 gun violence protest.