A little bit of the swamp was drained today. Scott Pruitt is the latest member of Trump’s team to be walked out the door at the White House. Trump made the announcement on Twitter.
…on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2018
While not an official member of the Cabinet, the EPA administrator is customarily considered part of the inner circle. Pruitt was one of a handful of original Trump nominees still on the job.
Pruitt’s departure follows other high profile exits including, VA secretary David Shulkin, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (to name a few).
Pruitt was under fire after several ethical concerns including:
- Scott Pruitt offering to use taxpayer resources help a lobbyist
- His cost of travel and security
- Misusing taxpayer money to fly his wife to Europe last summer and get tickets to the Wimbledon tennis tournament
- Renting a condo from a lobbyist
- Skirting the normal procedures to give significant raises to his favorite aides
Trump in recent weeks has been exasperated by Pruitt, telling `someone last week that "it's something every day with" him.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 5, 2018
While Pruitt is finally gone, let’s not forget the damage he has already done to the EPA and the environment. In a Time magazine story earlier this year Christine Todd Whitman, the EPA administrator under George W. Bush said:
“…under the administration of Scott Pruitt, the agency is experiencing a new wave of policymaking—or rather, policy dismantling. (He has already dismantled the Clean Power Plan, which would have regulated carbon dioxide emissions in the power sector, and is now targeting vehicle-emissions standards.) If his actions continue in the same direction, during Pruitt’s term at the EPA the environment will be threatened instead of protected, and human health endangered instead of preserved, all with no long-term benefit to the economy.”
So, uh, what was the last straw for Pruitt? Was he caught actually robbing the treasury?
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 5, 2018