Congressional Hearing Swamp Monsters

Overview

The Congressional Hearing Swamp Monsters refers to a group of individuals dressed as the monster from the horror film The Creature from the Black Lagoon in protest of the appointment of Secretary of the Interior nominee David Bernhardt. Criticizing President Trump's infamous campaign promise to "drain the swamp," the protestors contend that Trump's nominee Bernhardt is the type of person Trump promised not to hire and wore the costumes ironically.

Background

On March 28th, 2019, a hearing for the appointment of Secretary of the Interior nominee David Bernhardt was held in Washington, D.C. During the hearing, a group of protestors in green Creature from the Black Lagoon masks were in attendance. CSPAN posted a video of their appearance in a tweet, writing "Look in the background during Interior Secretary Nominee David Bernhardt's opening statement." The post received more than 7,700 retweets, 23,000 likes and 1 million views in 24 hours (shown below).

Developments

Greenpeace Statement

That day, an activist for Greenpeace, the environment protection action group, said or the protest,^[6] "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."

Janet Redman, Greenpeace USA Climate and Energy campaign director, said in a statement:

David Bernhardt heading the Interior Department would be a dream come true for fossil fuel companies, but a nightmare for the American people. If ethical violations alone don’t disqualify him from holding this position, his record of selling out public lands and waters to his industry buddies should.

People who care about clean air, safe water, and a healthy climate have been sounding the alarm about Bernhardt’s history of catering to fossil fuel executives since he was named Deputy Secretary two years ago, and he’s done nothing since but prove he’s not fit for this job.

Online Reaction

Throughout the day, people shared photographs of the costumed protestors inside hearing. The Twitter^[1] account for citizens' rights organization Public Citizen tweeted,^[1] "It looks like a swamp monster is trolling Interior nominee and former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt at his confirmation hearing. Fun fact: Bernhardt has more conflicts of interest than Pruitt, Zinke." The tweet received more than 1,200 retweets and 3,100 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left). Others shared images of the hearing, including other activist platforms. That day, a Twitter account, @DoiSwamp,^[2] dedicated to the monsters launched.

The monsters were also a topic of conversation on the /r/politics^[3][4] and /r/NewPatriotism^[5] subreddits.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the protest, including Newsweek,^[6] Mashable, ^[7] The Washington Post,^[8] NPR^[9] and more.

Search Interest

External References