WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and House Republicans have escalated their feud with Patagonia after the outdoor retailer told Americans that President Donald Trump \u201cstole your land\u201d in his move to shrink two sprawling Utah national monuments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dispute pitting the GOP against a private company raised questions about use of taxpayer resources for political criticism and whether Republicans are trying to stop Patagonia sales weeks before the Christmas holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the day of Trump\u2019s announcement about the monuments, the California-based retailer replaced its usual home page last week with a black screen and stark message: \u201cThe President Stole Your Land.\u201d Patagonia filed suit to block the planned reduction to Utah\u2019s Bears Ears National Monument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a tweet, the House Natural Resources Committee said Patagonia is \u201clying\u201d and making the allegation about Trump\u2019s plan \u201cto sell more products to wealthy elitist urban dwellers from New York to San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Republican-led committee also sent out a widely distributed email with the subject line, \u201cPatagonia: don\u2019t buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A committee spokesman said Monday the email was not urging a boycott of Patagonia, but rather was telling consumers, \u201cDon\u2019t buy the lies\u201d about Trump\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just telling Patagonia: stop selling a false narrative,\u201d said Parish Braden, a spokesman for the committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patagonia\u2019s lawsuit, filed in conjunction with a rock climbing advocacy group and other organizations, is among a flurry of lawsuits that have been filed over Trump\u2019s move to reduce the size of Bears Ears by nearly 85 percent and cut in half the land protected in Utah\u2019s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company said it spent years supporting groups creating other national monuments and directly lobbied for protections at Bears Ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zinke accused Patagonia of lying about Trump\u2019s actions and retweeted the committee post on his official account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response, former government ethics chief Walter Shaub launched a tweet storm, saying Zinke \u201cmisused his official position by re-tweeting this wildly inappropriate tweet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shaub, who resigned in July as head of the Office of Government Ethics after repeated battles with the Trump administration, called Zinke \u201cthe poster child for this lawless administration\u2019s misuse of governmental authority & resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zinke\u2019s \u201cthuggish interference with a business is outside the scope of his duties, raising a question as to whether a sovereign immunity defense might fail\u201d if Patagonia sues him for libel or slander, Shaub said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee may have violated House rules against advertising for or against a private individual, firm or corporation, Shaub said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe federal govt officially and publicly calling a company a liar for political reasons is a bizarre and dangerous departure from civic norms. It\u2019s also decidedly anti-free market,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat who serves on the committee, said Republicans were spending taxpayer money to attack a private company that criticized Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAllowing them to get away with it is a dangerous precedent,\u201d Gallego said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Committee Democrats, meanwhile, appeared to welcome the GOP feud with Patagonia, tweeting that it was resulting in \u201cgreater awareness that our #publiclands are under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More attacks from Zinke and other Republicans will only lead to more business for Patagonia, which equals \u201can increased bottom line for a company that defends #MonumentsForAll,\u201d the Democrats said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The confrontation could be paying off for Patagonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teresa Courage, a former Utah resident who now lives in New York, said on the company\u2019s Facebook page that she did all her Christmas shopping at Patagonia because of its politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love supporting a company that\u2019s going to go out on a limb and do that,\u201d she told The Associated Press. \u201cIt speaks to me about its integrity. They\u2019re not just following the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
___<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Associated Press writer Michelle Price in Salt Lake City contributed to this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dispute pitting the GOP against a private company raised questions about use of taxpayer resources for political criticism and whether Republicans are trying to stop Patagonia sales weeks before the Christmas holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,15,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2924],"class_list":["post-14597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"W7QKPYJ3LBBENFZAYFQHRFPD4I","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/2017\/12\/12\/zinke-house-gop-escalate-feud-with-patagonia-over-monuments\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n