Last week, when even snowball-loving Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe expressed some doubts about Scott Pruitt’s tenure as EPA administrator, it felt like perhaps, finally, the constant barrage of scandals was having an impact on Pruitt’s supporters.
But after meeting with Pruitt on Monday night, Inhofe told reporters he felt “a little embarrassed” for having ever doubted Pruitt. It seems Pruitt convinced his fellow Sooner that the real culprits behind all these scandals was a trifecta of “disgruntled former employees,” Tom Steyer, and critics of Pruitt’s agenda.
In other words, Pruitt played to his fellow climate denier’s susceptibility to conspiracy theories and blamed the left for his problems.
But that’s some straight up bullshit. We wondered, when we heard Inhofe was meeting with Pruitt, if it would be an earnest effort to suss out his motives or just an excuse for Inhofe to give Pruitt a clean bill of health, so to speak. Now we know.
Because obviously a disgruntled former employee didn’t force Pruitt to enlist his EPA aides in the personal business of getting his wife a homophobic chicken franchise or job at a conservative think tank. Pruitt’s critics didn’t make him rent a condo from a couple lobbying the EPA. Tom Steyer wasn’t the one who went behind the White House’s back to give raises to two of the young women Pruitt brought from Oklahoma to serve as aides, or try and procure a used mattress from the Trump hotel, or drive him around looking for fancy snacks or lotions. And of course, none of those people are responsible for Pruitt’s anti-people, pro-polluter agenda.
Hopefully, though, the EPA’s inspector general isn’t apt to be quite as gullible as Inhofe. And their reports are coming, per Senate Environment and Public Works Chair John Barrasso, who said yesterday Pruitt will be invited to appear before the EPW committee for “a substantive hearing” in August after the IG finalizes multiple reports this summer.
Now, given the pace of Pruitt’s scandals, there could well be another dozen investigations by then. But we’ll just see if the IG is as gullible as Inhofe, and writes off Pruitt’s suite of scandals as nothing more than a liberal hoax.
Wouldn’t be the first time Inhofe ignores reality for a comfortable, partisan lie. Here’s to hoping that once the IG reports start rolling out, Inhofe feels “a little embarrassed” for believing Pruitt’s excuses.
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