Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called the reports on his declining profile in Trump’s cabinet “BS” during an appearance on a local right-wing talk radio show last week.
“They’re very angry, and truth doesn’t matter to these people anymore,” he said on Friday while speaking the media on Montana Talks.
He went on to baselessly accuse CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta of “nearly” assaulting President Donald Trump during their viral confrontation at a presser last week, even though the two were never physically close and just talked over each other.
“You know what, I do my job, I disregard the BS,” he said.
“You know, it comes from the same liberal reporters that have lost their ability to tell the truth,” Zinke added. “Here’s one for you: I think I’m going to probably be the commander of Space Command.”
He went on to craft a Trump-esque conspiracy on how the media writes fake hit pieces about him that are “invented” and sold to news outlets.
“[The media has] nothing better to do, the entire organizations are about attacking Zinke,” he said. “So what happens is, they invent a story, they try to sell it, and it goes all the way up to the Washington Post, the New York Times, there’s truth to it. It’s just a series of allegations.”
He also announced that he won’t enter Montana’s gubernatorial race in 2020, as he’s just “going to continue doing this job and doing good things” instead.
While other former cabinet members caught in similar ethics scandals, like Tom Price and Scott Pruitt, were forced out of the administration, Zinke appears to still be holding on. On Friday, Trump announced that he does not intend to ask for the secretary’s resignation.
However, he is still caught in a Justice Department investigation on a property negotiation he made with a nonprofit and a developer financially tied to the chairman and former CEO of Halliburton, David Lesar. His other ethical issues include charting a $12,000 flight to Las Vegas to speak to a sports team owned by one of his congressional donors, spending nearly $140,000 on new doors for his office, and a litany of other things.
[image via screengrab]
