Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, left, swears in Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C, on August 1, 2017. Photo: U.S. DOI

National | Politics

Secretary Zinke requires special flag to be flown when he's in Interior building

Friday, October 13, 2017

Secretary Ryan Zinke is facing new criticism over a seemingly odd routine that takes place when he's at the Department of the Interior.

According to The Washington Post, a special "secretarial flag" is flown at 1849 C Street NW whenever Zinke, a former one-term Congressman, in the building. It comes down when he leaves, the paper said.

“We’re talking about Cabinet members and federal buildings, not the Queen of England and Buckingham Palace,” Chris Lu, a former Obama administration official, told the paper.

A spokesperson for the department told The Post that the flag represents Zinke's commitment to "transparency" by showing he is at work. But none of his predecessors, Republican or Democrat, appear to have followed a similar routine. Other members of the Cabinet members in the Trump administration don't do the same either.

"Here we have Ryan Zinke now, acting like the Queen of England," Joe Scarborough, the co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe said on Friday morning. Scarborough, a former member of Congress, quit the Republican Party after tangling repeatedly with President Donald Trump.

But Zinke isn't alone in the special flag ritual, The Post reported. When he's not around, a different flag is raised for Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt, the paper said.

Read More on the Story:
Where’s Zinke? The interior secretary’s special flag offers clues. (The Washington Post October 12, 2017)
A new frontrunner in the ‘Trump’s Oddest Cabinet Member’ contest (MSNBC October 13, 2017)

An Opinion:
Joel Clement: Secretary Zinke, it's time to call it quits (CNN October 12, 2017)