"Disingenuous." "Shackled." "Failed." Patagonia founder tells off GOP in searing takedown

Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to massively cut the size of two national monuments has provoked outrage. One of the most prominent opponents of the move has been the outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia, which filed a lawsuit and took out a public notice titled “The President Stole Your Land.”

And Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard made it clear where he and his company stood.

“I’m not going to stand back and just let evil win,” he declared.

Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee were not pleased. The committee chairman, Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, responded with a petty attack statement on his committee’s social media account titled “Patagonia Is Lying To You.”

Bishop promptly followed up with a demand for Chouinard to come testify before the committee, if he was convinced Trump’s decision was so bad.

Chouinard was not willing to play that game. In a blistering letter, he explained why he was not interested in letting House Republicans ambush him:

pic.twitter.com/atMnsDItqC

— Patagonia (@patagonia) December 19, 2017

“I find it disingenuous that after unethically using taxpayers’ resources to call us liars, you would ask me to testify in front of a committee for a matter already decided by the administration and applauded by the Utah delegation just a week ago, a macabre celebration of the largest reduction in public lands in American history,” said Chouinard.

“It is clear,” he went on, “the House Committee on Natural Resources, like many committees in this failed Orwellian government, is shackled to special interests of oil, gas, and mining and will seek to sell off our public lands at every turn and continue to weaken Theodore Roosevelt’s Antiquities Act, which has preserved our public lands for over 100 years.”

Chouinard saw through Republicans’ move to discredit him. Instead of following their rules, he took his case directly to the American people.