U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), the disgraced former Trump Secretary of the Interior who literally rode into town on a horse but resigned amid numerous ethics allegations, on Tuesday declared the “deep state” is real and wants to “wipe out the American cowboy,” in a speech supporting a highly-controversial Republican committee to investigate the Dept. of Justice.
Donald Trump announced Zinke (photo, in 2017) would be resigning at the end of 2018, and barely weeks later Zinke had a new job as the managing director of a cryptocurrency firm. But in 2021, Zinke re-launched his congressional career, having served previously from 2015-2017.
“Mr. Speaker,” Congressman Zinke said as he began his speech on the House floor, “I rise today in support of the Select Committee to Investigate the Weaponization of the Federal Government, something that I have a lot of experience firsthand.”
Presumably, Rep. Zinke was referring to the numerous investigations conducted into his actions. NBC News reported last year that a report found as Secretary, “Zinke and his chief of staff ‘knowingly provided incorrect, incomplete, and misleading answers’ to investigators from the department’s Office of the Inspector General.”
That investigation surrounded reports that a large resorts company successfully lobbied the Interior Dept., and later that the White House had “taken steps” to replace the Inspector General conducting it.
Other allegations against Zinke included that he “chartered a flight from Las Vegas to near his home in Montana … aboard a plane owned by oil-and-gas executives,” The Washington Post reported in 2017. That flight cost taxpayers $12,375. A commercial flight could have cost as little as $300. There were other allegations, several regarding travel expenses.
In fact, in August of 2018, a little more than four months before his resignation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) published “A guide to the 18 federal investigations into Ryan Zinke.”
On Tuesday, Zinke continued his speech, saying, “I proudly served as the 52nd Secretary of Interior, and despite the deep state’s repeatedly attempts to stop me, I stand before you as a duly-elected Member of the United States Congress and tell you that a deep state exists and it is perhaps the strongest covert weapon the left has against the American people.”
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“There is no doubt the federal government Deep State coordinates liberal activists and uses politicians and willing media to carry their water,” he alleged.
“The deep state run secret messaging campaigns with one goal in mind: to increase its power to censor and persuade the American people. Dark money groups funded by liberal billionaires and foreign investors, funnel money to shell organizations and repeatedly attempt to destroy the American West. In many cases, they want to wipe out the American cowboy completely, remove public access to our lands, and turn Montana into a national park.”
“They want to control our land and our lifestyle,” Zinke declared.
Watch below or at this link.
Image via Twitter/SecretaryZinke
This article has been updated to include the CREW report.