U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), the disgraced, “ethically dubious” former U.S. Secretary of the Interior who literally rode into Washington on his first day in 2017 on a high horse and left amid ethics scandals with his “tail between his legs,” is baselessly concocting a claim suggesting the attempted assassination of ex-president Donald Trump by a lone 20-year old registered Republican might be a “plot” of the U.S Government.
Zinke, a conspiracy theorist who promoted the same false, anti-Obama “birtherism” claims that Donald Trump used to launch his 2016 White House run, talked to Fox Business on Monday, weaving a tale of Trump being a “movement” supported by Americans who are not “woke” and were not comfortable watching the Olympics.
The 62-year old Congressman’s remarks come as Speaker Mike Johnson’s House of Representatives, now on an extended vacation until September 9 with a shutdown deadline just three weeks after, announced the formation of a 13-member bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination.
Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, is not on the task force, but Fox Business invited him to talk about the assassination attempt.
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“Ronald Reagan was 1.5 seconds between when he was shot and in the car – remember he didn’t get shot directly as a fragment. So with President Trump, all you know is he’s bleeding, you don’t know [inaudible] there’s one shooter, two shooter, elevated position, and what happens they bring him down but he should have been wrapped in a ballistic blanket and gone two miles before he noticed he had his shoes not on,” Zinke told Fox.
Trump, within seconds of the gunman unleashing what reportedly were eight bullets, four times demanded, “Let me get my shoes.”
“So there was a number of breaches, and here’s where it boils down to: We know there was negligence. We know there was incompetence. We know there was break of protocol, communications, etc. But was this incompetence willful and knowing? That’s what I want to want to know,” Zinke declared.
“Did you willingly and knowingly put the president in a position by atrophying the security and allowing this to happen?” he asked, apparently baselessly. “Look if it was knowing and and and you knew for a fact that your lack of security and bringing it down would put the president at risk, that brings it from assassination plot, you know, attempt into the area of a plot – big difference between an attempt and a plot and we’re going to find the answers.”
That’s when Congressman Zinke went further in on his assassination “plot” claims.
“What government agency, department, division has the full confidence of the American people? And I can tell you it comes down to zero,” Zinke declared Monday.
As Secretary of the Interior, Zinke, “racked up 18 federal investigations into his behavior in under two years,” leading Citizens United for Ethics and Responsibility (CREW) to declare him “one of the most ethically dubious members of President Trump’s Cabinet.” In its report updated in 2021, CREW wrote, “a few of these investigations have cleared Zinke of wrongdoing, [but] many remain ongoing,” despite Zinke having been forced out of office at the end of 2018.
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“Zinke has been a shameless handmaiden for the special interests. His staggering ethical abuses have delivered a serious and lasting blow to America’s public lands, environment, clean air and clean water,” Nancy Pelosi, who was soon-to-be again Speaker of the House, said at the time, The Guardian had reported. “Americans are confronted with an administration of unprecedented corruption, cronyism and incompetence, which has shown zero respect for the office or taxpayers’ money.”
Zinke on Fox continued his remarks, saying, “Trump is as much of a movement as he is a candidate, because America is not comfortable where we are. We’re not comfortable with watching the Olympics, you know, disgusting display, dishonorable. We’re not, you know, we’re not comfortable with with the woke. We’re not comfortable about beating, getting beat up on foreign shores. So this is a movement, and I think the assassination plot, if it is a plot, I’m hoping it is an attempt and not a plot. I mean just the number of inconsistencies and break in protocols and comms and negligence and incompetence. What’s America supposed to think?”
Watch the videos above or at this link.
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