Zinke calls Clinton the 'anti-Christ,' gains national attention

Calling former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the “anti-Christ” has gained Republican U.S. House candidate Ryan Zinke some national media attention.

According to the Bigfork Eagle, Zinke made the comment at a Bigfork campaign gathering on Jan. 27 at Marina Cay Resort.

“We need to focus on the real enemy,” Zinke said, referring to Clinton. He then went on to call her the “anti-Christ.”

Zinke, a former state senator from Whitefish who represented Columbia Falls and Whitefish, ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor as a Republican with gubernatorial candidate Neil Livingstone in 2012.

A retired Navy SEAL commander, Zinke later told the Daily Inter Lake he obviously doesn’t think Clinton is the “anti-Christ.” On the other hand, he said he doesn’t think too highly of her largely because he knew the two former Navy SEALs who died at the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

His remarks about Clinton were picked up by the Huffington Post, The Hill, Salon and other online outlets, often framing Zinke’s remarks in unfavorable ways, but none attempted to contact him, he said.

“No one talked to me about it. It’s not truth they are after,” he said. “They want to create mistrust. It’s always a character assassination.”

“I would say this: It was perhaps a little harsh,” Zinke said about his remarks. “But I had two friends in Benghazi and the truth does matter.”

The Bigfork Eagle story also reported that Zinke had handed out .50-caliber ammunition to people at Marina Cay. That was garnered national media attention.

Politicsusa.com wrote that Zinke “referred to Hillary Clinton as the anti-Christ before passing out bullets to his supporters.”

But the “bullets” were actually writing pens “that happened to be shaped like .50-caliber ammo,” Zinke said.

“They are trying to paint me as something I’m not,” Zinke said.

Zinke also noted that in a recent book by former Defense Secretary Bob Gates, Clinton “openly admitted that she had not supported the surge (in Iraq) for political reasons.”

Zinke said it’s “unacceptable” for someone who may run for President in 2016 to put politics ahead of the safety of U.S. troops as commander in chief.