While the focus of today’s disastrous nominations has been on the proposed VA head, one of Trump’s “best people” who is already in position and tearing up the planet at record speed is finding himself with softening support.
“Obviously, Scott Pruitt has got some serious questions to answer,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota told reporters at the Capitol. “So we’ll see where that goes. But I think that’s being looked at, not just by the administration but also up here” in the Senate.
Thune is exactly the sort of person who might be expected to sing Pruitt’s praises. He was dead set against the “Waters of the United States” rule to protect small bodies of water and seasonal streams. He’s gone out of his way to remove animals from the endangered species list, not by helping them recover, but by simply de-listing them. Pruitt would seem to be his dream EPA administrator.
But Pruitt’s ever-growing list of excesses, indulgences, and corrupt behavior has reached the point were even Republicans are feeling less than chummy with Pruitt.
Thune’s remarks indicate a crack in support for Pruitt among Republican leaders. They come amid scrutiny of Pruitt’s unorthodox $50-per-night rental of a Capitol Hill bedroom from a lobbyist’s wife, frequent travel to his home state of Oklahoma and questionable spending decisions at the EPA.
Those questionable spending decisions include not just strangeness like Pruitt’s $43,000 cone of silence, but his routing around the White House to hand a windfall to two of his Oklahoma pals by raiding a fund meant for environmental consultants. An act which Pruitt followed by going on Fox to claim he didn’t do it. Except … it’s all but certain that he did.
Scott Pruitt is in the midst of an effort to remove the last drop of science from decisions about public health and the environment, but even Republicans may have reached the point where they’re ready to rid the EPA of Pruitt. And they’ll have to move fast if they want to push Pruitt out before the Inspector General does it for them.
Republicans were recently all gung-ho on the DOJ inspector general when he produced a report critical of Andrew McCabe. Odds are they’re going to be a bit less enthusiastic about this one.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general on Thursday said he plans to examine Administrator Scott Pruitt’s use of his round-the-clock security detail while on personal trips, including a family visit to Disneyland and attendance at sporting events, such as the Rose Bowl and a University of Kentucky basketball game.
That would be Pruitt’s $2 million per year personal task force. The IG is also looking at Pruitt’s use of first class flights all over the planet, which Pruitt has excused by claiming it’s for security purposes, even though a FOIA request to the EPA hasn’t turned up one credible threat.
Between his ludicrous spending on “security,” his paranoid purchases of bullet-proof everything, sound-proof booths, and security systems inside security systems, his deceptive use of funds to give his friends a raise when that raise had been turned down and, oh yeah, his $50-a-night luxury townhouse provided by a fossil fuel lobbyist, Pruitt is looking more than a little radioactive even before the reports come in.
Some of the most reliable conservatives in Congress are starting to speak out against Scott Pruitt, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency who is now facing a barrage of ethics and spending questions.
Previously, conservative Republicans had shown a reluctance to question the actions of top Trump administration officials. Their new outspokenness against a prominent architect of President Trump’s regulatory rollback represents a major break from the past.
Repairing the damage that Pruitt has done will take years, and his replacement is likely to be no better on core policies. But Pruitt needs to go no matter what. Because as long as he stays, he’s a shining example that Republicans will let Trump’s officials get away with any level of corruption.