Scott Pruitt’s Undoing—Despite White House Lies

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by Michael John Scott

According to the serial liar currently occupying the Oval Officer, there was no “final straw” that led to the departure of Scott Pruitt from the EPA. Trump says it was Pruitt who asked to step down, the Hill reports. “It was very much up to him,” he said when pressed by reporters about Thursday’s announcement.

He went on to say, “Scott is a terrific guy. And he came to me and he said, ‘I have such great confidence in the administration. I don’t want to be a distraction.'”

The Washington Post, however, tells a different story, citing two administration officials who say Pruitt was forced out by Trump without even a one-on-one conversation. The sources say instead, Trump had the chief of staff John Kelly call the EPA “around midday to say it was time for Pruitt to go.”

More on the surprise news:

  • Pruitt didn’t seem too concerned about his job over the holiday, with the New York Times noting he made an appearance at two July 4 parties and showed “no indication” of a potential shakeup. What may have caused Trump to move on Pruitt, per one source: an “embarrassing” story that recently came out about Pruitt gunning for Jeff Sessions’ job as attorney general.
  • Pruitt’s resignation letter made clear his fealty to the president, but in the Daily Intelligencer, Margaret Hartmann writes that Pruitt “miscalculated” on two fronts: one, he didn’t inspire loyalty among those who worked for him, and two, he may have thought Trump’s constant emphasis on “loyalty” would shield him. But “by now everyone should be aware that the only person Trump is really loyal to is himself,” Hartmann notes.
  • ScienceAlert lists some of the reactions to Pruitt’s departure, with at least one person noting his “epic” resignation letter. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says Pruitt should’ve been shown the door “28 scandals ago,” per USA Today, while the executive director for DC’s Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics watchdog issued a curt one-word statement that simply read “Good,” Newsweek reports.
  • Kristin Mink, the woman who confronted Pruitt earlier this week at a restaurant and asked him to resign, is also reacting. “Not in a million years did I think this would happen. You know, so quickly,” she tells ABC7, adding she started “jumping up and down” when she heard the news. She also had a tongue-in-cheek tweet for the president, per the Hill: “Hey @realDonaldTrump where are you going to lunch tomorrow?”
  • Susan Glaser notes in the New Yorker that Pruitt’s departure is another indication that chief of staff John Kelly is useless in stanching the turnover hemorrhage that’s come to epitomize the Trump administration. “It’s long since been clear that the Trump-staff death watch is one of the signature storylines of this Presidential reality show,” she writes. Kelly has become powerless in general, with “Trump himself [having] assumed the role of chief of staff.”
  • So what’s left in Pruitt’s wake? If Trump continues down the same path Pruitt started, an “overheated planet and shortened lifespans,” says the New York Times editorial board.
  • Still, this development could prove “political gold” for Democrats, Jon Healey writes for the Los Angeles Times. “The November election will clearly be a referendum on environmental protection,” he writes. “Look forward to lots of 30-second ads featuring smokestacks belching out black clouds and pipes dumping sludge into rivers.”
  • So what about Pruitt’s replacement? Vox and Time offer quick primers on Andrew Wheeler, the EPA’s deputy administrator who will be stepping in for the time being, and they both note his ties to the coal industry. The AP details how Wheeler differs from his predecessor (he’s a DC insider, for one), while NBC News speaks to green groups who don’t think Wheeler will prove to be better for the environment than Pruitt.

About Post Author

Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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Glenn R. Geist
5 years ago

Like most of us, my science education is getting dated, but I just finished a book called Origins and among other things, the science of climatology is quite advanced and we know quite a bit about atmospheric conditions for millions of years. We have a lot of detail going back hundreds of thousands and have identified what’s due to cycles and what is random and the Republican fake science is far more ludicrous than I thought.

No, I don’t think we can accurately predict what the world average temperature in 20 83 will be, but the way it’s going it might be moot anyway.

jess
5 years ago

Did you read his letter of resignation though? Guess dolt45’s balls don’t lick themselves so he has people to do that for him in his cabinet. God this, god that god the other, it was seriously terrifying to read that bullshit, terrifying.
The guy that is replacing him is just as bad, maybe worse because he will do things behind the scenes away from public grifting glare like Pruitt. He was a coal lobbyist and worked for Inhofe and does not believe in climate science at all. Does not even need to go through the senate for approval since he did that, so he can move in place right away and carry on doing what Pruitt was doing minus the grift, for now.

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