It’s official. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chief Scott Pruitt resigned on Thursday (July 5) amid several ethics scandals. The news became public in the form of a tweet from the POTUS, Donald Trump.
Pruitt faced 14 different federal probes while employed as the EPA Chief which has only been for the past 18 months. Pruitt used his position in public office for personal gain which is something that became clearer with the uncovering of each ethical misconduct and violation. But Pruitt pointed to "unrelenting attacks" on him and his family as his reason for resigning not any wrongdoing.
Pruitt's ethical violations were plentiful
Pruitt is not the first cabinet member to resign or be fired from the White House as it's had its share of staffing and hiring problems. When President Trump took office, he underscored his campaign promise to drain the swamp. But no one knew and perhaps, Trump didn't either, that he would appoint a very swampy crocodile to his own cabinet. And what most did know about Pruitt was that he was not a supporter or believer in climate change and pollution.
According to the Associated Press, CNN, ABC reporting, and interviews with whistleblowers, Scott Pruitt's violations over the past year and a half span from using taxpayer dollars to fund lavish trips to installing a $30,000 privacy phone booth in his office.
Whistleblowers told CNN that Pruitt asked White House aides to put hotel room stays on their credit cards only to not pay them back. Aides were also asked to find his wife a six-figure job with an annual salary of at least $200,000 but only after his request to help get her a Chick-fil-a franchise fell through.
Among the outcries from the whistleblowers, allegedly Pruitt had them participate in scrubbing his public calendars of particular meetings he attended requiring them to maintain multiple calendars--the real and the fake one.
This on top of other duties like sending staff them on errands to buy lotion and get a used mattress from one of the Trump International Hotels. The list went on and on and never seemed to end, until the presidential tweet.
Eery timing and advice from a teacher who publicly confronted Pruitt
On Monday (July 2) the Huffington Post and Washington Post both reported on the social media video of schoolteacher Kristin Mink who approached the former EPA chief who while dining out.
She provided Pruitt with sound advice and reasoning for his resignation.
In an interview following the announcement of the Pruitt resignation, the teacher told CNN she had no idea he was planning to resign she just knew she had to say something. One could proffer an explanation of Mink's eery timing as her reading tea leaves in the Teaism restaurant where she confronted him or her confrontation was a foretelling of the days to come.
Donald Trump continues to support Scott Pruitt
Thursday (July 5) aboard Air Force One President Donald Trump tweeted out that he accepted Pruitt’s resignation and praised him. There was no mention of the scandals, only of Pruitt's successor.
...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
During the last 18 months, the president has been the only person who has really stood by Scott Pruitt but it appears to have been too much as it weighed heavily on the POTUS, sources told CNN.
And problems he does not need especially since the recent signing of the migrant family executive order and foreign policy issues.
FOX News Laura Ingram and even Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is rumored to be on his way out as well, questioned for months why Scott Pruitt was still a part of the president’s cabinet and employed at the White House as the ethical violations piled up.
Earlier this year, Scott Pruitt went directly to the POTUS during a meeting and suggested that Trump fire the US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and give him the position of overseeing the Department of Justice—all of which came as a shock to many of the aides, said White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
Pruitt’s strategic plan was to acquire the attorney general‘s position and then go back to Oklahoma to campaign and run for office.
This is how the news story of Trump considering the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions came into play, Collins explained.
Scott Pruitt is out and Andrew Wheeler is in
According to vice president and CNN's Political Director David Chalian, Pruitt remained in office so long because he was implementing the policy agenda that Trump wanted for his administration. The main agenda was to roll back Obama-era policies on the environment and climate change. However, the swamp got too swampy, even for the Trump. Pruitt was warned to stop but the violations kept coming, said CNN.
So with this in mind, in order to keep his agenda intact, the POTUS had to replace Pruitt with someone who would continue the rollbacks, just without the scandals and ethics violations.
This is where EPA Chief's deputy Andrew Wheeler comes in. White House sources told CNN that Wheeler is a good worker and is well liked. They also added that there was no concern about ethics violations from Wheller who is expected to assume his new cabinet role on Monday (July 9).
