Scott Pruitt Takes That Grift TO ELEVEN
Do I hear banjo music?
Oh, Scotty! When you've lost Fox News, you are well and truly fucked! On Tuesday we took you on a whirlwind tour of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's many fascinating ethical entanglements. The $50/night condo from an energy lobbyist, the fat raises he gave to his two prized staffers from Oklahoma out of Clean Water funds after the White House explicitly nixed the idea, and the ongoing investigation of his gargantuan travel and security expenses. Our Scott is a busy guy!
Since then we've learned that Pruitt used his favorite Oklahoma staffer to find him a new apartment -- a massive ethical no-no, even if you believe she only called the realtors after business hours. (Which, well, color us skeptical.) A government employee cannot be asked to do non-government work for her supervisor. That is not a thing!
And then Kevin Minoli, the EPA ethics official who dummied up that memo last week saying Pruitt's lobbyist sublet was totally kosher, has started to back away from it. Don't take him the wrong way, see. Minoli wasn't saying that Pruitt didn't change EPA policy to favor his landlord Steven Hart's clients. And he wasn't saying that Pruitt's actual living arrangements were cool. All he was saying is that the words on the lease are okay. So don't blame Kevin Minoli for whatever shit is coming down the pike, thankyouverymuch!
Plus that phone call where John Kelly supposedly told Pruitt that it was all good and the White House had his back? Yeah, not quite. The Daily Beast reports,
Is there anything else that “hasn’t come out” yet, Kelly asked, according to three Trump administration sources. The chief of staff then impressed upon Pruitt that, though he has the full public confidence of President Trump for now, the flow of negative and damning stories needed to stop soon, as one source briefed on the contents of the call described.
“[It] was not a friendly buck-up call at all,” is how another Trump administration official described the conversation to The Daily Beast.
And that was before The Atlantic dropped that bombshell about his two pals from Oklahoma getting raises!
So Pruitt went in search of a friendly audience. Unfortunately, Ed Henry forgot that he works for Rupert Murdoch's Stooge and Toady Channel and actually did real journalism yesterday. Also unfortunately, Scott Pruitt talks like a guy on speed who just got caught shoplifting a pork roast at the Piggly Wiggly.
WATCH: @edhenry sits down with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt to discuss controversial pay raise for two of his staff members, condo rental from the wife of a lobbyist https: //t.co/2Cp7Sd5xpE pic.twitter.com/2M4oHUAaE6
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 4, 2018
Thanks, $5F. I've detested Scott Pruitt for ages, now I loathe him more.
In the video I also posted he admits to it, and says it had been a long standing practice in the House. That it was something that the House leadership should really look into making against the rules someday, be he would certainly never do it again. Which of course translates to, "I'll do my best to never get caught doing it again".