Navy Seal Commander Ryan Zinke Confirms: Mulling Run For Speaker Of The House

Ryan Zinke / House.gov
Ryan Zinke / House.gov

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a former Commander at Navy SEAL Team Six before his election to Congress last year, confirms he is openly considering a run for the Speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Well, I’m looking at it,” Zinke said on Andrew Wilkow’s Wilkow Majority on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 on Tuesday afternoon.

The Speaker is about leadership and not policy and we’re at a point in our nation’s history where we’ve had a Speaker resign, we’ve had a presumptive Speaker resign and quite frankly we’re facing what I think is a leadership crisis. In our country’s history, there have been other freshmen Speakers—though it has been a long time. But it isn’t about policies. It’s about getting the Congress to do their duty: And that’s the defend the principles that made this country strong and defending the Constitution. I’ve taken an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. It’s time to rise and put our country first, and yourself second. It’s about leadership. We’re looking at it. Our phones are ringing off the hook because I think America wants something different. I haven’t decided, but what I have decided is that Congress better do our duty and defend our values of this country.

Zinke said the Speaker of the House is a “representative” of the entire body, and an “orator of what America should be,” adding that it is an “enormous responsibility” and “I haven’t retreated from battle and neither should America.”

“I’m listening—I’m on a bus tour around beautiful Montana,” he said, noting he’s traveling right now through small towns in his state. “That’s the heartbeat of America right there,” Zinke said.

“Americans are frustrated and they look at their government and it’s not doing what we should be doing,” Zinke said. “They want a better future and they want America to be strong and prosperous.”

Everything at this time in the House seems to be on hold until House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)—the establishment pick to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner—makes a final decision on whether he will run.

At this time, Ryan is not expected to easily win if he runs as he’s come under serious criticisms from conservatives movement-wide over his support for amnesty and Obamatrade and the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) bailout program among other things. So until Ryan makes it clear and official he’s not running, the elections will be on hold. But, every second that goes by without Ryan making a decision, more and more alternative candidates continue emerging as potential Speakers of the House.

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