Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) says he has your back, buckaroos. (Watch the video below.)
The MAGA House member ranted on the House floor Tuesday that the “deep state” is trying to corral cowboys for good in a speech that was far from home on the range.
“There is no doubt the federal government deep state coordinates with liberal activists and uses politicians and willing media to carry their water,” he said. “... 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.”
Not everyone was yelling yippee-ki-yay after the new Republican-led House voted to create a new committee to investigate the “weaponization of the federal government.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said the committee was “designed basically to protect those who, quite frankly, are under investigation right now.” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) called the committee, likely to be led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a den of “tinfoil hat” conspiracy theorists.
Zinke insisted he’s been a victim of the deep state, imagined to be a cabal of hidden liberal operatives who attack right-wing interests.
“Despite the deep state’s repeatedly [sic] 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,” Zinke said.
Zinke faced nearly 20 federal investigations as secretary of the interior under President Donald Trump before announcing his resignation at the end of 2018. During his time in Trump’s Cabinet, he backed an historically large reduction of national monuments while promoting the administration’s anti-environment policies.