(This one crossed the 'politics" category line into the "slly, random and fun" category.)
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a newly elected representative from Montana, celebrated his second day in Congress with a lengthy rant about the American “Deep State” and the endangered “American cowboy.”
Zinke, whose tenure as Trump’s Interior Secretary lasted from March 2017 to January 2019 until he was forced to resign over ethical violations — but not before gutting the Endangered Species Act, opening up off-shore drilling, and shrinking national monuments, is one of several former Trump Cabinet officials to be mired in ethical violations. His political comeback was bolstered by Trump’s endorsement as he joins a new House GOP majority.
During a harangue on the floor of the House of Representatives, Zinke blamed the left for attempting to stop his election to Congress, perhaps forgetting that his own lapses of ethical behavior (confirmed by a Interior Department report) may have caused him to step on his own two right feet.
“Despite the Deep State’s attempts to repeatedly 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,” announced Zinke.
“There is no doubt the federal government Deep State coordinates with liberal activists and uses politicians and willing media to carry their water,” he continued. “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.”
Under Zinke’s tenure as Trump’s first interior secretary, the Department of the Interior shrank land designated as national monument at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 85 percent and opened up almost the entire U.S. coastline to natural gas and oil drilling. Zinke’s Interior Department also weakened protections for animals including the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It’s enough to question the motives of a man parading around in a cowboy hat touting his genuine concern for Montana.
The man is deranged.
It would seem that is the skill set the republicans desire in congress.