KALISPELL, Montana — Ryan Zinke says Kabul is now in danger of becoming a new killing field.
“President Biden’s ineptitude has enabled the Taliban the capacity to shut down the small Kabul airport and hold hostage or slaughter every troop and citizen,” said Zinke.
The former Navy SEAL said he has long favored withdrawal from Afghanistan, but not the way it was done by the Biden administration.
The former Republican Montana congressman, who is now running for a yet-to-be-created new congressional seat in his home state, said his deepest concern for those Americans currently left behind in Afghanistan is that anyone who is sheltering in place is just waiting to be killed.
Montana lost a congressional seat decades ago, leaving the state represented by one member in Congress for over 30 years; partisans on both sides of the aisle once despaired that the state would ever regain the second one. But that all changed when the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau from the 2020 count showed a nearly 10% increase in population. This gave Montana the 434th seat in the coming Congress.
A dayslong drive through the back roads of the state demonstrated that the heart of the Wild West has not changed much, despite the influx of new residents.
Although towns such as Bozeman have the occasional gold-plated Maserati driving down West Main Street, the fierce independence and frontier spirit are evident everywhere you go. Agriculture, forestry, mining, and energy production are still king with the outdoor recreation industry a close second, followed by a slight uptick in high-tech industries.
Zinke, the first Montanan to serve in a presidential Cabinet, resigned when ethics allegations began to affect his ability to serve. But he was ultimately cleared by the Office of Special Counsel’s investigation, which found no evidence that he had violated the Hatch Act.
“I was attacked from day one by the cancel culture activists, and I think I went through 18 complaints and investigations,” he said. “At the end of it, all determined no wrongdoing. There never was, but they would do anything, I mean anything, to stop Republicans.”
Zinke said that President Donald Trump did not want him to resign. “But quite frankly, the job of interior secretary, in my mind, was more important than an individual,” he said. “So, when you’re being bombarded every day, at some point in time, the narrative is loud. And the narrative became too loud that the mission of Interior was more difficult to accomplish.”
He will be running for what will become Montana’s 2nd Congressional District. Previously, he served two terms holding the state’s only at-large seat.
The first thing Zinke said he got back when he returned from Washington was his wit. “I have most of my sense of humor back,” he said from his home in Whitefish. “I’m in shape again. Not SEAL shape, but I’m in reasonable shape, and my blood pressure’s down. Everyone has to do their duty. So, as much as I disdain Washington, D.C., for all the reasons one should, I love my country. Duty calls, and I am answering.”
Zinke said he is convinced Republicans will get the majority back in Congress.
“Quite frankly, I didn’t think I would go back to D.C. because of my disdain for the swamp,” he said. “And I can tell you as an interior secretary, I think when you call D.C. a swamp, I mean, why would you insult a swamp?”
He said he’s seen some great swamps in Louisiana and our Southern states and that “D.C. is no swamp — it is a cesspool.”
It was during COVID-19 that he had time to reflect and do what he has done most of his adult life: answer the call of duty. “I spent more time with my family, shored up on deferred maintenance, caught up, and saw that the Left had moved even further left than when I left.”
Zinke said the greatest threat facing our country is not Russia or China or even the terrorist regime of Iran. “It is the division within this country,” he said. “From a SEAL perspective, it’s like we’re in a boat, and one side is rowing one direction, and the other side is rowing in another direction. And what we’re doing is we’re going in circles, and we’re adrift, and we’re not answering the bell to address the challenges that face this country, like immigration, like censorship. It is time to save America, and everyone needs to do their duty. I think the woke movement is now a wake-up moment. We’re a great country, and I would not go back to D.C. or run for office if I didn’t think it was fixable.”
As for the issues voters want to discuss with him most, Zinke points to our decline as the world’s energy powerhouse, inflation, the border crisis, the decline of education at the hands of activist unions, and the recent Afghanistan debacle.
“The border in the south is virtually wide open, and the crossings are illegal,” he said. “Can that be fixed? Absolutely. Should it be fixed? Absolutely. Look at the inflation, and big surprise, our government lies. When plywood is a hundred bucks a sheet, our supply chain is not only broken, the inflation is just crippling. I mean, try living in a rural area and filling up your truck. It’s out of control.”
To date, three Democrats and two Republicans have entered the race for Montana’s new House seat. Nonprofit executive Cora Neumann, Public Service Commission counsel Monica Tranel, and state Rep. Laurie Bishop are the Democrats. Zinke and Al Olszewski, a former state legislator, are the Republicans.
Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale, currently the state’s lone congressman, is widely expected to run for reelection in 2022 in the state’s other district.
No one knows yet exactly where the line will be drawn between the two districts, but fortunately for everyone running, one need not live within a given district in order to run for its seat.
