Georgia GOP leader threatens Delta over cutting its NRA ties

ATLANTA — Georgia’s lieutenant governor on Monday threatened to prevent Delta Air Lines from getting a lucrative tax cut after the company ended its discount program with the National Rifle Association, in the latest fallout from a deadly school shooting in Florida.

Delta is part of a growing chorus of businesses cutting ties with the NRA after the Valentine’s Day shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead. But now the airline is coming under attack, with Georgia’s lieutenant governor threatening a sales tax exemption making its way through the legislature.

Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, president of the state Senate and a leading candidate to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal, tweeted that he would use his position to sink the proposed sales tax exemption on jet fuel.

“I will kill any tax legislation that benefits Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with NRA,” Cagle tweeted. “Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back.”

More than a dozen companies, including Metlife, Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Best Western, Wyndham and United Airlines have ended NRA partnerships since the school shooting. Police say the suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, gunned down students with an AR-15 assault-style rifle.