December 15, 2018

Ryan Zinke Is Resigning, and the Internet’s Reaction Is Priceless

Wow.

Tom Williams/AP

On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that his Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, will be leaving his position in the coming weeks.

Zinke’s tenure overseeing the nation’s public lands has been controversial and has resulted in a number of federal investigations. (He reportedly used taxpayer money to purchase a $139,000 door, for example.) A new secretary will be announced next week.

It would be an understatement to say that environmentalists and Democratic politicians were pleased to see Zinke go, and they quickly took to the internet to let him know it. In a tweet, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Zinke was “one of the most toxic members” of Trump’s cabinet. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)—an outspoken member of the House Natural Resources and Science committees—called Zinke’s time in office a “never-ending stream of terrible management decisions.” And the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, tweeted, “Don’t let your $139,000 door hit you on the way out, Zinke!”

Here are some more brutal parting words from his critics:

Even Jonathan Van Ness, of Netflix’s Queer Eye, joined in.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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