Wow. The Fox News interview with Scott Pruitt has a host of problems. He lies about what happened to EPA in pursuit of its mission, how it affected certainty in the market, and the fact that he wouldn’t answer questions about major ethical lapses. He spends a ton of time dodging questions about how he’s spent his money and whether or not he’s a part of “the swamp.” As readers of this blog know, swamps and wetlands are good things. So I hate to disparage swamps. Instead, let’s just recognize that Pruitt is an especially ripe piece of excrement in the American toilet. It’s time to flush him.
Pruitt lied about the EPA accomplishing its mission. He disingenuously says that regulations have become “almost weaponized.” That’s not true. Every Obama-era regulation was open to comment for extended periods. Those comments represented industry, cities and municipalities, different political parties, sectors like healthcare and insurance. and everyday people. The idea that this was “weaponized” is simply garbage.
Like a real Chicken Little and rewriter of history, he says that “the environmental left” is out to get him and an agenda that provides certainty. In the next breath he says he’s doing “transformational” things. First, as a point of clarification, you can’t have it both ways. When you’re fighting against a global tide that’s investing in clean and renewable energy—including in your own home state of Oklahoma—you are really not providing certainty. You’re messing with the market. That’s sort of funny coming from an alleged free-market fundamentalist. Second, it’s not just the environmental left. Former EPA administrators from the Bush and Bush Jr. administrations have spoken out about this administration’s calamitous environmental plans. James Ruckelhaus who served as Reagan’s EPA administrator said,
Once trust is lost and warnings of unsafe air or contaminated water are ignored, Americans will pay the price. Without that trust, not only will people question whether they can believe their government but also business and industry will face public backlash. Boycotts and other attacks are no good for industry and may result in more regulation than warranted.
But Pruitt’s constant attacks on health and toadying for industry have already eroded trust. The very thing that industry has tried to avoid–massive over-regulation–may come to be from these megalomaniacal ham-handed moves.
Fox’s Henry asked Pruitt about the sweetheart rent deal. He asks about the cost being conveniently low, about the price compared to other places, about the terms of the stay. He critically notes that the ethics folks were asked to comment months after it happened, not before. Pruitt deflects.
Let’s be real, if regulators and elected officials stay in cheaper-than-market-rate place, that’s bribery as far as I’m concerned. Period. And the fact that the place is owned by someone employed by a firm who lobbies for Exxon Mobil…that’s just rank corruption. Pruitt is thriving in a nasty pile in America that he’s made.
It’s time to flush the toilet.
Peter Walks for Democracy 