Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s woes keep piling up and he’s facing renewed scrutiny amid a list of new revelations—one of which is that he’s routinely told people he’s a geologist. From CNN:
"I'm a geologist," he said. "I can assure you that oil and gas in Bears Ears was not part of my decision matrix. A geologist will tell you there is little, if any, oil and gas."
Since becoming leader of the 70,000-employee agency, Zinke has suggested that he was a geologist or former geologist at least 40 times in public settings, including many under oath before Congress.
He uses it as a credential booster, saying things such as, "I can tell you, from a geologist, offshore mining of sand is enormously destructive environmentally, as in comparison to seismic," as he told the House Natural Resources Committee last month.
Just one teeny, little problem. He’s never worked as a geologist. He did study geology in college by closing his eyes and randomly pointing to a major in the University of Oregon catalog … and no, that’s not a joke.
"I studied geology as a result of closing my eyes and randomly pointing to a major from the academic catalog, and I never looked back. I am just glad I did not find electronics," he wrote, adding that he was focused and a good student, and earned an outstanding academic achievement award his senior year.
After graduating, Zinke wrote that he considered a career in subsurface geological surveying, but after a meeting with a Navy commander, "I realized that I was doing a lot more thinking about SEAL activities -- or what I thought SEAL activities would be -- than I was about geological exploration and surveying."
After graduating, Zinke spent 23 years in the military before getting into politics. That hasn’t stopped Zinke from touting his background as a ‘geologist’ to anyone who will listen. Needless to say, real geologists aren’t happy.
He’s also an unethical tool who has a penchant for wasting taxpayer dollars. This week the Interior Department’s inspector general found Zinke misled the agency about a very expensive taxpayer-funded trip last year. From Politico:
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke failed to disclose relevant information to ethics officials when he traveled to Las Vegas to speak to the Golden Knights hockey team last year, the department’s watchdog reported Monday — including the fact that one of his biggest campaign donors owned the team.
The report by Interior's inspector general also raised questions about whether taxpayers should have been on the hook for a $12,000 charter flight that Zinke took after the speech from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana. Because Zinke's speech did not even mention the Interior Department, the IG said it's unlikely ethics officials would have OK'd it as official business.
"If ethics officials had known Zinke’s speech would have no nexus to the DOI, they likely would not have approved this as an official event, thus eliminating the need for a chartered flight," the report said. "Moreover, had ethics officials been made aware that the Golden Knights’ owner had been a donor to Zinke’s congressional campaign, it might have prompted further review and discussion."
Oh, we aren’t done here. In yet another embarrassing chapter for this administration and Ryan Zinke this week, CNN went through the archives of Zinke's old radio show in Montana and he went full racist birther with guest Larry Bailey:
Bailey said that admitting he was a birther led to him losing donors to his group because people don't want to be perceived as being against Obama because of his race.
Zinke then said, "And the college records, you know, why not release them? I'm interested. Did he [Obama] say he was a foreigner and did he get a scholarship? Did he apply and receive a grant? That's what I hear. I don't know."
Bailey then claimed without evidence that a black Muslim man arranged for Obama to get admitted to Harvard Law School and that he paid for schooling with a grant from the Saudis.
"I'd like to see his transcripts. I'd like it definitive," Zinke responded.
"I hear things, you read things, you know, and obviously they're -- if our national PRISM program is out in the wire you, you'd think that we could get a hold of our president's college transcripts, but maybe that's just a bridge too far," Zinke continued, referencing the NSA surveillance program.
Zinke wanted U.S. intelligence to release Obama’s college transcripts, but the general public isn’t allowed to see Zinke’s travel and meeting schedule without filing a Freedom of Information Act request?
And I hope you are sitting down, because in another episode of his radio program, he questioned whether a Saudi national linked to Michelle Obama might’ve been responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.
"On this, if Michelle Obama, if the first lady is involved at all, I mean, visiting any capacity. I mean, if that is true. This is, I'm flabbergasted, I'm flabbergasted," Zinke responded, noting that many of 9/11 hijackers were Saudi.
And last, but not least, Zinke has been laser-focused on turning over public lands directly to the Big Oil and Big Gas Swamp, from offshore drilling to shrinking national monuments and handing the valuable land over for drilling and private profit, all the while carving out exceptions for his home state of Montana. From the New York Times:
In the last year, Mr. Zinke has torn up Obama-era rules related to oil, gas and mineral extraction and overseen the largest reduction of federal land protection in the nation’s history, including an effort to slash the size of Bears Ears National Monument.
But here in Montana, where support for drilling in certain beloved areas can be a career killer, Mr. Zinke has struck a different note. And as he faces allegations that he has violated travel and ethics rules, an examination of his Interior Department record shows that his pro-development bent has not always applied to his home state, where he is viewed as a fiercely ambitious candidate for future office.
In the past year, Mr. Zinke has halted the sale of oil and gas leases near Yellowstone National Park, opposed gold mining in that area, and urged the president to protect one national monument, Montana’s Upper Missouri River Breaks, while creating another, the Badger-Two Medicine, just miles from his childhood home.
Seriously, how does this guy still have a job?