Donald Trump has made a number of disingenuous promises on everything from health care to immigration, but not all of them caught on to quite the same level as his “drain the swamp” slogan. Of course, he’s done nothing of the sort, making plenty of government appointments that reek of corruption, and frankly, some local swamp monsters have had enough of it.
Maybe they’re annoyed that their swamp monster friends are busy in Washington when they could be home, doing … whatever it is swamp monsters do. Menacing? Lurking? Donald Trump promised to send them home!
Alright fine, they’re actually Greenpeace activists who showed up in swamp monster masks to protest the Senate confirmation hearing of Trump administration Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Bernhardt is a former lobbyist for clients including those in the oil industry, who has some pretty troubling scandals brewing already.
Or, as swamp monster/Greenpeace activist Adrienne Lowry put it when speaking to Newsweek, “David Bernhardt is one of us. He’s down here in the muck every day advocating for the dirty fossil fuels we swamp monsters love. I wanted to be at his shining moment to make sure he won’t forget where he came from.”
You might think that showing up at the hearing in monster masks is a bit hokey, but then, that’s exactly the word Donald Trump used to describe how he initially felt about the “drain the swamp” slogan before he saw how much his empty words excited his supporters.
Bernhardt is an especially ridiculous choice for Interior secretary considering the department’s job is to manage and conserve federal land and natural resources, and Bernhardt has had the department working overtime to make sure oil and gas permits get approved. That includes staffers working over their Christmas break to approve a permit for arctic drilling, for the first time since 2015, for Eni Petroleum—a company listed on Bernhardt’s ethics recusal—as well as continuing Donald Trump’s pillage of public lands by pushing ahead to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even during the government shutdown.
The swamp monsters reportedly remained in their seats for two hours before eventually being removed by police, who can be seen considering the fact that this is an actual thing they’re going to have to do in this video:
The moment when Capitol Police notice the swamp monster sitting behind oil lobbyist David Bernhardt is too much 😂 pic.twitter.com/0WNuuRKhWW
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) March 28, 2019
There’s no word yet on why the swamp monsters sitting quietly in their seats were removed, while the one helping Donald Trump sell out the environment is allowed to stay.
(image: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
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