House Benghazi Committee chairman stumps for Zinke

The House Benghazi Committee chairman told a roomful of Republican supporters at a Tuesday campaign rally for Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke that it’s time to get the message out to voters about why they should support their candidate in the election.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, spoke alongside Zinke during the standing-room only event at the Majestic Valley Arena pavilion saying his party can do a “better job of communicating.”

“The days are over when you can say here’s our platform, read it,” he said. “You have to say it. You need to tell your friends what you believe and why you believe it.”

Zinke, a former Navy SEAL commander from Whitefish, is seeking re-election as Montana’s only member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He faces Democrat Denise Juneau in his campaign for a second term.

The event Tuesday was the first for both Congressmen in a four-stop tour around the state.

Gowdy gained national attention for leading a congressional probe into the 2012 attack on Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans who were working at a diplomatic outpost were killed.

Gowdy praised Zinke for his more than two decades of service in the armed forces. He recalled a conversation he had with the freshman representative, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, about military policy.

Zinke responded by explaining his point of view on this issue, Gowdy said, and also explaining the reasons to vote on the other side of the issue.

“You don’t expect members of Congress to be right all the time, but you do expect them to be honest,” he concluded.

Zinke began his address by saying he hasn’t seen one problem in his time in Congress that wasn’t fixable.

“America is upset and we should be upset,” he said. “We find ourselves in a ditch and we have to rise out of that.”

He set out three things he says should be the focus of taking any oath of office — defending the U.S. Constitution, maintaining a strong national defense and ensuring economic freedom and prosperity for the country.

He said defense of the Constitution includes individual rights including to bear arms, freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

On national defense, he said, that means securing the nation’s borders. He noted his support of the American Safety Against Foreign Enemies Act, a bill that would expand background checks on Iraqi and Syrian refugees wanting to enter the United States.

“I don’t have a problem with refugees, but I do have a problem with unvetted refugees,” he said.

Zinke seemed to draw a connection between economic prosperity by job creation through reform of the management of federal forest lands. He pointed to the closure of a Weyerhaeuser mill in Columbia Falls with a loss of 200 jobs and wildland fires near Hamilton where a timber thinning project in the works for five years was canceled because of the Roaring Lion fire.

Democrats have claimed that Zinke voted to open the door to transferring the federal government’s public lands to the states. It’s a claim he denies.

“I don’t think we should transfer it, I don’t think we should sell it, but we should manage it better,” he said.

Zinke ended his speech asking for support to get his message to voters.

“I need your help to convince the rest of Montana, we’re on the right track,” he said.