LISTEN: Zach Lahn Melts Down When Pressed on His Career in Politics, Cancer, and Water Quality
DES MOINES – Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn had a complete meltdown on Iowa Public Radio’s River to River after host Ben Kieffer called him out for lying about being an outsider to politics and for his failed private school.
When asked about his “decades of ties to the most … entrenched interests” in the country, Lahn dodged the question while berating the reporter. The truth is he spent his career as a paid political operative, working for corporate polluters and ran a campaign to block Medicaid expansion in Montana.
Lahn was also repeatedly pressed on not having a real plan to address Iowa’s water quality and cancer crises. His answer to funding cancer research under Kim Reynolds’ billion-dollar budget deficit? To “get rid of humanities programs and degrees” at Iowa colleges — but when asked, he couldn’t name a single program he would eliminate. Lahn was also asked how he would reverse Reynolds’ budget disaster and rambled on about the state of Minnesota instead of answering the question.
Listen here or read what Lahn had to say below:
On his career as a political operative:
- Kieffer: “There are real questions about how much time you’ve actually spent living in the state. I want to ask you, given your background and political connections, why should voters see either of you as a true outsider?”
- Lahn: “I ran campaigns for a handful of years. I worked for an outside group …”
- Kieffer: “But you spent years as [a conservative dark-money group’s] Montana state director.”
- Lahn: “That’s incorrect. That’s incorrect.”
On not having a water quality and cancer plan:
- Kieffer: “Will you make that funding increase a priority as governor?”
- Lahn: “There’s a lot of humanities degrees that … need to be shuttered.”
- Kieffer: “So get rid of humanities programs and degrees. Name some programs that you think could be eliminated.”
- Lahn: “…”
On not having a plan to address Kim Reynolds’ budget deficit:
- Kieffer: “The state can’t spend more than it’s taking in forever. Where would you cut state spending or how would you reverse this trend?”
- Lahn: “Look at what happened in Minneapolis …”
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