about sessions to pruitt. have had some kind of bizarre comradery over this other person even while pruitt is under fire and tells me that pruitt feels very confident in his standing with the president. you talked to conservatives on the outside a lot of them, i would venture to say, most of them still support scott pruitt and they want him in the job talking to the president, they urge him to keep him there and pruitt is confident. asking the president for favors. and the president is listening. he's not gone yet which goes to show that he's more angry with jeff sessions over one mistake in his mind that he believes triggered other things than the litany of other issues that pruitt brought on to his white house. >> never forget the president likes jeff sessions at doj because of immigration. president likes pruitt at epa because of the environment and the issues aside, rebecca, i mean, apparently pruitt only serve in the position for i think 210 days due to the vacancies reform act. what do you make of the fa

throughout it all pruitt held on. but trump canceled by republican officials that pruitt was making gains rolling back regulations stopped short of letting him go. >> i'm not happy about certain things, but he's done a fantastic job running the epa. >> reporter: just yesterday pruitt appeared to be in good standing with the president. attending the white house's july 4th picnic on the south lawn and receiving a shout out from trump. >> administrator scott pruitt. >> reporter: but flt frantic world. trump administration, 24 hours could mean the difference between a job and a farewell. at the same time, another department secretary facing a huge challenge. racing to meet a deadline as the crisis on the border gets worse. health and human services secretarial e secretarial f alex a sar saying 3,000 kids have been separated but saying it's closer to 2,000. >> multiple data sets has identified under 3,000 children in total, including approximately 100 children under the age of five. >> the white house facing a deadline fro

pruitt? >> i do. you. >> up next, drew griffin has a look at the controversy surrounding this cabinet member, pruitt under fire, the battle at the epa, starts now. >>> the following is a cnn special report. >> we are going to end the epa intrusion. new energy revolution. epa is a disaster. it's killing us. our plan will end the epa. >> a campaign promise being carried out about this man. >> i think that scott has done a fantastic job. i think he is a fantastic person. i just left coal and energy country. they love scott pruitt. >> let me be very clear, i have nothing to hide. >> you are unfit to hold public office. >> some call scott pruitt the biggest threat to the environment. >> doing great damage to the agency and to human health. >> scott pruitt is completely accomplishing longtime decades long conservative agenda items. >> now one of the president's top cabinet members surrounded by scandal. >> pruitt is now facing 10 investigations. >> pruitt had a $50 a day condo. >> phone booth that resembles

pruitt went too far. the child separation at the border, as much as the president was behind tough immigration policy and as much as his base identifies him, president saw that went too far. the idea all things are changed under trump, even he sees when things have gone too far. >> generally it's when he himself feels threatened. and it may be that he doesn't like the on particulars. i don't think that's ts case. because he's traded intensity, traded away breatheth. right. intensity is strong. breedth is very limited. so i don't think it's the controversy as amanda said a few minutes ago, it could be circling back to the mueller probe. anything that touches it gets subpenaed. i don't know this. i know it from experience. that if in fact there was some movement that could be part of a plot to shut down the mueller investigation, that's a very big deal. my prediction is based 0on what she just said, he's going to praise pruitt. he couldn't say a good word about tillerson when he left. >> we all remember tom

they feel very strongly about scott pruitt, and they love scott pruitt. now, so scott pruitt has had some problems with those working for him at the epa as well. >> he has. the "new york times" is reporting that a handful of epa officials were reassigned, demoted. their concerns had to do with epa spending on office furn tire, first class travel, demands for a bullet-proof vehicle. one of those epa employees was an early hire in the trump campaign but was placed on administrative leave without pay after raising concerns about pruitt. the a spokesman for the epa told the new york times that the agency disputes those allegations. >> randi kaye, thank you very much. during that shot on area force one, the president thinks between 2,000 and 4,000 american troops will be deployed across the border. now a texas sheriff is not thrilled. why he's against the move when we continue. when you say you need a heart transplant... that's a whole different ballgame. i was in shock. i am very proud of the development of drugs that can prevent the rejection and prevent the

they love scott pruitt. they feel very strongly about scott pruitt.itt. >> let's get more on breaking news from one of the correspondents who broke the story, cnn's pamela brown who joins us from the white house. explain what you learned about the president and pruitt. >> reporter: we've learned as recently as this week, the president floated replacing attorney general jeff sessions with embattled epa administrator st scott pruitt. even as pruitt faced this growing list of negative headlines about ethics concerns. at one point, it was said that the president was trying to protect pruitt. this reveals how confident he remains in pruitt, despite a dizzying number of ethics issues. pruitt has remained in trump's good graces for the most part. though a source familiar with the matter said the president's confidence in him has faltered some earlier this week in light of some of the ethics issues that continue to surface. he is hesitant, however, to fire him, because he likes entertaining this idea of replacing sessions with him eventually, and that he will

scott pruitt is out. president trump telling reporters he has accepted the resignation of his embattled epa chief, saying it was very much up to him, pruitt. and that pruitt didn't want to be a distraction. it's a surprising resignation, given that just 24 hours ago, pruitt was with the president at the white house fourth of july picnic. the president even giving him a shout-out. >> we're also honored to be joined by members of my cabinet. administrator scott pruitt. >> but today, pruitt writing to the president this in part. "it is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role, first because i count it a blessing to be serving you in any capacity, but also because of the transformative work that is occurring. however, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us." the unrelenting attacks pruitt speaks of are actually a stream of scandals which he created. a stream of scandals being investigated by his own agency. the list

scott pruitt is out.dent trump telling reporters he has accepted the resignation of his embattled epa chief, saying it was very much up t

with scott pruitt a lot more than that. the defense the white house could provide for him in the wake of these scandals he was facing 14 federal probes was that he was doing what the president wanted over at the epa. he was rolling back those environmental regulation rs. he was doing those obamaeral guidelines. really doing what the president wanted. but that raised a question of if a staffer is doing something like that, something that administration finds useful, are they willing to overlook the scandals against him. and the blatant misuse of taxpayer money. you also can't ignore that the president has been attending fund raisers in recent weeks, one of them is the bill air harold ham, key figure in oil and gas, that is someone that the president was having fundraising dinners with. private residences here in washington. that is certainly someone who liked the work that scott pruitt was doing over at the epa. so it's a little bit more than just their personal relationship. it goes into the politics of what exactly he was

they love scott pruitt. they feel very strongly about scott pruitt, and they love scott pruitt. >> and so which is it? should you be happy if you're scott pruitt? the president says when he travels, he hears great things about you, he's a good man, he's doing a fantastic job, or do you look at past people who have been called good men who are now former trump administration officials? in the case of pruitt, i would make the distinction that they're more frequent and the president connects him to the job performance. doing a fantastic job. >> and there is a real chorus of conservative activism hind pruitt. they're reacting both to reporters and i'm sure the administration that they don't want to see pruitt go. that suggests perhaps the president is listening to such things, that he'll end up staying on, at least longer than one might think. i talked to a senior administration official yesterday who made no bones about the fact they are looking into this. they are at looeeast saying the is a process beyond jus

they love scott pruitt. they feel strongly about scott pruitt. they love scott pruitt. >> the president's backing is so strong sources tell cnn he floated replacing attorney general jeff sessions with scott pruitt as recently as this week. sessions is a target of the president ever since he recused himself from the russia investigation. the president endorsed pruitt despite the headlines and allegations he sidelined top aides who pushed back on spending. more from cnn's sara ganim in washington. >> reporter: good morning, rene and dave. bad headlines continuing for epa administrator scott pruitt. this time reports that he sidelined officials after they pushed back or raised concerns of the pricey travel and overall management of the agency. two sources with the knowledge of the matter told cnn that career and political appointees who disagreed with pruitt were iced out. a story reported by "the new york times." in one case, an official was reassigned when he refused to drive pruitt through town with lights and sirens to avoid heavy washington tra

pruitt at the epa for environmental reasons. and he likes having jeff sessions at the justice department on immigration policies, so maybe those two guys won't be moving anywhere anytime soon. but thank you all very much for a great conversation. just ahead, a top conservative congressman speaks out about a report claiming he ignored allegations of sexual abuse. >>> plus, the dangerous and difficult effort that's underway to rescue a boy's soccer team from a flooded cave in thailand. >> how many of you? >> 13. >> 13? brilliant. ♪ you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia. add-on advantage. ♪ south l.a. is very medically underserved. when the old hospital closed people in the community lived with untreated health problems for years. so, with the county's help we built a new hospital from the ground up and having citi as an early investor worked as a signa

decision was up to pruitt. is that what your sources are telling you in the white house? >> the decision was not up to pruitt. there was no specific final straw per se. what tipped the balance, two things, the embarrassment surrounding kaitlyn collins story about how it was many months ago this had happened, pruitt had pitched himself as jeff sessions replacement again, appealing to trump's vanity and basically in a mold of sicnk cofancy you could see in that resignation letter. and scrubbing up from the meetings. that tipped the balance. a source from the administration officials said that focused people's minds because that brought it to a different level. this all did begin according to two of my sources, that report about him attempting to buy a mattress from the trump hotel. that brought it into a different area. >> it was a mattress. >> the best part of that is you will never say that to me on set again. it was the mattress that was the first one. i think it was a snowball effect. trump is willing to put

he even floated replacing sessions with pruitt this week. what do you know about that? >> don, certainly a number of devel developments here today. but as for scott pruitt, we do know the president has been thinking about this for several weeks we know that jeff sessions, attorney general, is the most, you know, the biggest member of the cabinet with a target on his back. he is furious for him for more than a year. one way around confirming a new attorney general is to appoint an acting attorney general. the only person who can be appointed as an acting attorney general is someone who has been confirmed by the senate already. so scott pruitt, the former attorney general from oklahoma, a member of the president's cabinet, could have slid into that role. so we know the president has been thinking about that as early as this week. but the question now, don, is that out the window given all of these allegations? we know the president is watching that interview on fox news. he is watching it, i'm told, just off the oval office in the study and di

now the feelings were further deaned after pruitt -- deepened after pruitt did interviews with fox news as well as "the washington examiner," which senior administration officials said only made matters worse. one source said if more negative headlines about pruitt come out, that could be the final straw. >> i have seen a couple in the last few minutes. this idea that he maybe wants to replace jeff sessions at the justice department with pruitt, this underscores the president's focus and preoccupation with the issue of sessions and rosenstein and the russia probe. >> reporter: that's right. in fact, even if he's not tweeting about it, behind the scenes he's talking about it. that chatter continues about ousting both of them. multiple sources familiar with the thinking tell me and my colleague caitlyn collins, that his advisers have tried to thwart this by convincing him that by doing so, firing sessions, it would be damaging in the midterms given how popular he is with conservatives. the same advisers have argued that firing rosenstein could delay the completion of the special counsel,

i think when donald trump watches ed henry interview scott pruitt and determines that scott pruitt isn't up for the job. it is when donald trump gets jealous of the attention that scott pruitt is getting, or the fact that scott pruitt has carried himself in such a way to act as if he's the president, as if he's the big deal. i think that is the thing. look, donald trump is more than happy to create scandals and controversies that other people have to fix for him. what he's not willing to do is to lose political capital, defending somebody else, and their scandals and controversies. that's why i think that pruitt is very -- on very thin ice, very tenuous right now. >> matt lewis, generjen saki, t y you. >>> at least one state says it is welcoming the help. does your moisturizing romine does. an mvp? aveeno® skin relief. with oat oil and natural shea butter, it softens very dry skin and lasts for 24 hours. aveeno®. it's a game changer. a heart transplant... that's a whole different ballgame. i was in shock. i am very proud of the development of drugs that can prevent the rejection and prev

> because he likes scott pruitt and he loves loyalty and pruitt is doing the bad stuff in the epa but trump said he only hires the best people and thus from from his administration in his cabinet secretaries are the most corrupt and the most unqualified group of people we've seen in our nation's history. and the other thing, and i think in any other administration whether it is democratic or republican, he would have been fired already. he would have been fired by now. pruitt would have never lasted this long. we have to remember, pruitt is the person who lied during his hearing about private e-mail account. >> take a listen to senator john kenny, republican of louisiana talking about pruitt. >> some of his behavior has hurt the president of the united states. and it's hurt the president's credibility and the credibility of all of us. and it would be way cooler if he would behave. and ethics matter and impropriety matters and the appearance of impropriety matters. >> that is jonah goldberg -- that is the help me help you. john kennedy saying, please cut it out. >> it is so easy to lum

pruitt says he later rescinded them.be clear, when you are talking about hiring friends and former business partners, it is not necessarily uncommon in politics except after this case, it comes weeks. there is an added scrutiny in his past business dealings and relationships. we did see today at least two public letters to the epa and inspector general calling for investigations. so we are likely to hear about this in the coming weeks. >> thanks very much. just ahead discussion about whether the minefield of ethical questions of scott pruitt will amount to anything in the long run. ♪ directv now gives you more for your thing. your letting go thing. your sorry not sorry thing. your out with the old in with the new, onto bigger and better thing. get the live tv you love. no bulky hardware. no satellite. no annual contract. try directv now for $10/mo for 3 months. more for your thing. that's our thing. visit directvnow dot com ( ♪ ) (sustained horn honk) advisor: (on phone) jane, this is jim from onstar, i've contacted help

. >> scott pruitt, administrator of the epa. >> reporter: embattled epa chief scott pruitt out tonight after months of mounting ethics scandals and questions about his behavior. president trump announcing on twitter, i have accepted the resignation of scott pruitt as the administrator of the environmental protection agency, praising pruitt's work rolling back obama era regulations at the epa, but making no mention of the dozens of ethics questions facing him. pruitt writing in a letter to the president, your confidence in me has blessed me personally. adding the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizeable toll. pruitt had been under a cloud of scandals for months, constantly facing questions about his security detail, pricey first class travel and cozy relationships with lobbyists. pruitt was back in the headlines just this week. a cnn report revealing he and his aides kept secret calendars to hide contentious meetings. an aide testifying before the house oversight committee that pruitt asked her to find his wife a job with a salary of o

scott pruitt. poor judgment bad. secretary treasury steve mnuchin, bragging about debt soouner brands ms. mnuchin was wearing. the best people. accused spousal abuse bad. fired white house secretary rob porter. critics say the administration has taken most of it on himself. take dr. jackson. the president all but showed h imthe door. >> what does he need it for? to be abused by a bunch of politicians that aren't thinking nicely about our country? i really don't think personally he should do it but it's totally his decision. >> the president said he wasn't aware of the allegations. the question is why? how did he get the job? the president was impressed by his press conference, the one where he talked about just how incredibly healthy the president is. >> he has a lot of energy, a lot of stamina, hands down. he's in the excellent range from a cardiac standpoint. his overall health is exexcellent. his heart exam, like i said, was in the excellent category for his age and sex. i think he will remain fit for duty for the

so as goes pruitt and zinke and carson. and john kelly is saying get rid of him and the president is completely disregarding his chief of staff. >> that relationship changed at least a few weeks ago where donald trump has wanted for a long time to be free to make the decisions, especially on administration, that he wants to make. he knows that the narrative and the media that john kelly was brought in to bring the president to heel. you've seen the succession of people that donald trump has moved out. he moved out mcmaster, he moved out rex tillerson at the state department. scott pruitt has a constituency, he's popular with republicans. mcmaster was never like a base guy. this is going to be trickier for trump. but john kelly, you know, he's sticking to the same message but if the president wants him to stay, pruitt may be hanging on. >> thank you very much. and next, donald trump unhinged today talking about conspiracy theories and mexican rapists. >> women are raped at levels that nobody's ever seen before. >> plus the p

i just spent -- they love scott pruitt. they love scott pruitt. thank you very much, everybody. >> can we talk about syria, mr. president? syria? >> clearly, jeff, it was hard to understand the audio, the quality not very good. they'll try to clean it up and get a better sense. one of the pool reporters did send us a transcript. let me read from the transcript precisely what the president said when he walked to the back of the plane and had this q&a with reporters. first question -- on amazon. so we'll see what happens, the post office is not doing well with amazon. we're going to see what happens. the playing field has to be level for everybody. i'm going to study it, we're going to take -- take a look at that. then the questions on stormy daniels started. question -- did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? the president -- no. question -- why did michael cohen, the president's private attorney and longtime friend, make it? answer -- you have to ask michael cohen. michael cohen is my attorney. you'll have to ask him. question -

there it doesn't seem like pruitt has risen to the level, trump is not happy with pruitt.e his job. some of these other folks like tom price, health care had failed. he felt like he had failed. rex tillerson, he was upset with constantly. shulkin had embarrassed him. we'll see if pruitt gets there. being locked out of your $50 rental because you weren't paying the rent and you were staying too long. i don't know if that breaks his back. you heard hogan. he couldn't say whether he would be there or not. on the president knows. >> what do you think? >> yeah. i think we crossed a line in the last 24 hours from the swamp of corruption to the swarm of of that a athleticic. the getting locked out. changing the locks. trump typically pushes people out when they become story too much. in all the other cases, at some point he became disappointed and thought they weren't loyal to him anymore. it feels like he's staying up too much band width. >> i think pruitt has put enough policy points on the board for trump and for the conservative base that that is why he has houng as long as h

pamela brown is "outfront." >> scott pruitt, sir, you support scott pruitt?e's going to be great. >> reporter: president trump stopping short of endorsing his epa administrator scott pruitt today who was just the latest cabinet member to be under fire. >> what an exciting day. >> reporter: pruitt making carefully choreographed remarks at the epa today where he didn't take questions from reporters. last week, cnn confirmed pruitt was renting a condo for $50 a night connected to a prominent energy lobbyist whose firm represents companies under epa regulation and the owners were political supporters of pruitt when he was an oklahoma state official. and a series of new reporting raises more questions about the ethics of the rental. "the new york times" is reporting the epa approved the pipeline expansion of a canadian energy company at the same time pruitt was renting the condo owned by the lobbyist. the "times" says that canadian company is a client of the same lobbying firm. democratic senator sheldon whitehouse sending a letter to the epa inspector general tod

they love scott pruitt. they feel very strongly about scott pruitt and they love scott pruitt. >> we begin an hour of turmoil on wall street. the president is threatening china with a whopping $100 billion in additional tariffs. the dow down, you see it there, around 330 points. investors are rattled about talk of a trade war. farmers are rattled, too. but listen here, the president telling a morning radio show getting tough with china is long overdue and that a roller coaster market is a price worth paying. >> we've already lost a trade war. we don't have a trade war, we've lost a trade war. i'm not saying there won't be a little pain, but the market has gone up 40%, 42%. we might lose a little of it, but we're going to have a much stronger country when we're finished. >> jeff zeleny live at the white house for us. jeff, the president surprised even members of his own team with this new $100 billion threat of a counterpurnch. do they share his view that an end will justify the means? >> several advisers her

is pruitt gone by the end of the week? >> no, i don't think so. i think as the press secretary there said, the president must be happy with what skroot scott pruitt is doing with the ep. a because he has been one of the most effective cabinet officers as rolling back the obama regulatory regime. this is the core difference between pruitt and say shulkin at the v.a. pruitt delivered results to the trump white house whereas vulgen was failing at the v.a. i think the president has to weigh the effectiveness of pruitt versus the optics of this. no one ha has been found to be doing anything illegal or unethical. richard accused him. there iss unfolding the investigation. but nobody has ultimately concluded he has done anything wrong no matter how bat bad the optics. scott do you have a maren -- amanda's mouth was just hit the floor when you said that. go ahead, amanda. >> well, like, here i worked in

why not scott pruitt?ual, but remember, it's only 1:00 on friday so it's still possible we'll get news on that. you mentioned john kelly being concerned that pruitt's headlines can get worse. i don't know that that can happen. let's go rapid fire through a bunch of headlines about scott pruitt that happened just in the last few weeks. scott pruitt gets more security than any epa head ever. why does that matter? security costs money. scott pruitt had security at the rose bowl and disneyland. scott pruitt, when he could have flown commercial, he flew private jets. pruitt had a $50 a day condo linked to lobbyists. he paid $50 a day, but only on nights he stayed there. reviewing scott pruitt's conduct. next one, pruitt's security diesel asked to use sirens and lights throughout d.c. i wish i could do that. you probably shouldn't abuse that when you're an official with the trump administration. and epa officials sidelined after questioning scott pruitt, essentially saying when the epa race questions everything

, scott pruitt's wife.ultimately unsuccessful so the pruitts eventually relied on leonard leo who is a conservative kingmaker in town and runs the supreme court process for the administration and a lot of judges to get this other paid job. >> and also held on that trip to italy, right? that pruitt took that raised so many questions. whais the epa saying about this?ot>> they commenting at all, but it's, you know, the repeated stories of his effort to get her a chick-fil-a franchise and using anything that we employed last week and efforts to basically for months and months to find work for his life because scott pruitt was telling his aides that he needed more money and could not live in washington on the salary of being administrator. >> the president continues to voice his support of scott pruitt because he's executing the president's wishes inside of the epa, right? rolling back a lot of these regulations. the president just last week said, and i quote, people are really impressed with the job that's bein

or for pruitt to resign.fectiveness here, maybe not so much of the 63 democrats because that could be put into a partisan lens, but members of the president's party saying it's time for pruitt? >> all three republicans who did sign it are in swing districts. they're under a fair amount of pressure and trying, i think, not only to preserve their own political positions but not to give the democrats one more issue to beat up on republicans over. this is very, very damning. the damage will go beyond the trump administration, and to see republicans signing on suggests that there's -- this at least the perception of a branding problem, that others who are running on the democratic ticket in these midterm elections are going to suffer from the misdeeds of the scott pruitts of the world. he's got his own sort of political future. it's a mixed and interesting one where he's got prospects not only back in oklahoma but possibly on the national stage. we shouldn't write him off by any means. he apparently is talented an

let's start off with scott pruitt here. interesting laura ingraham of foox ne fox news tweeting "pruitt is the swamp, train it." it's the second time she has been called for pruitt to be fired. apparently there's starting to be concern that maybe these ethics issues can be used the political attack ads. does she need to say this on air for the message to start getting through to the white house? >> happy fourth. >> happy fourth. >> i don't know. i think sometimes we can exaggerate how much a single fox news host, how influential they are. it does show cracks among trump's most vociferous supporters and kind of amazing that it took this long for people who support president trump to see pruitt as a liability. that graphic that abby put up with her shop there, the list of scandals against pruitt, i don't think any of us could remember it all. >> and that's a snapshot. >> there are ten just there and that's a week's worth of news in pruitt's scandal world. i'm become a little facetious. and i don't understand this argument tha

they love scott pruitt. >> now scott pruitt obviously has his own travel spending concerns. taxpayer money was a problem and a fireable offense for price, why isn't it for pruitt and the condo and the soundproof booth and the door that had to be replaced and on and on? >> victor, i think that you're right, part of the formula is the job that he's been able to do in terms of -- >> it's excusable for pruitt? >> i -- i'm saying that he -- the president said he's unhappy. he's saying he's going to look into it. there might be an i.g. review of the whole thing. he will be taken to the wood shed in one form or the other. i just don't think he will be dismissed over it. i want to point out also to my friend brent, though, remember richard winsar. you know -- windsor. you know the name, richard windsor. the alias that administrator lisa jackson used to conduct business with behind the scenes. to me that was a huge scandal. i didn't hear the outrage from the environmental community on that. here was a woman in public position using an alias name, richard windsor, lisa jackson under o

i think some of that, jim, was talk created by scott pruitt about scott pruitt being the next attorneyt that doesn't mean it couldn't come true. i think i'll add to a.b.'s point that i think two things donald trump doesn't like. number one -- well, actually four. numbers one, two, and three bad headlines that he doesn't create. number four, what he views to be as overweaning ambition, people who aren't doing -- not taking care of their business in one place and already trying to move on. i don't see -- i'm with chris christie, i don't know how scott pruitt survives this because again it's not one bad headline. a.b. just ripped through about six bad headlines. you know, i think what you're seeing here is probably a finding someone to take scott pruitt's job. it seems to me more of an if -- a when not if in terms of him going. >> john, speaking of headlines, "the washington post" calls scott pruitt a swamp monster today. >> yeah. and usually you have to wear a costume to accomplish that. no, look, chris's point is that the president's powers of projection are really profound. when you ge

he needed to concentrate on pruitt. you let him give them completely phony story. president trump won the election because he said i'm going to get rid of the regulatory onslaught at the epa, and he won the industrial belt in rural america, and that's why he's president. scott pruitt is an important part of that, and that's why we're defending him over these really small potatoes charges. >> all right, gotta go. we'll leave it there. myron and van, thank you both. >>> a reminder to tune in tonight for the van jones show featuring former vice president al gore. he has much more to say on this issue and more. the director of the mega hit movie "black panther" ryan coogler. also joins van. that's tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. we'll be right back. ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪ ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪ i'm all-business when i, travel... even when i travel... for leisure. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations- -or

how does pruitt survive these scandals?rely there is someone else qualified to dismantle the environmental regulations that president trump could pick the lead the epa how is scott pruitt surviving? the reason he's been able to survive is he is implementing and executing on a policy prescription that very much matches donald trump and a lot of his supporters' agenda. so he's following through day to day with accomplishing the roleback of regulations as you say. what it does, though, of course, is it pits it against this pledge to drain the swamp so you have the swampiest of swamp creatures apparently we're learning more and more each day that he is that. he is achieving a policy that the president wants to see implemented. >> this is so far beyond the swamp. it's like a tsunami meets a swamp. it's a swampnami. >> is there spelunking? >> you watch the drew piece, there are questions of the law here. eventually the law is going to catch up to scott pruitt. if they're scrubbing the calendar, that appears to be a violation of t

on may 16th, 2017, pruitt's former aide writes, administrator pruitt asked me to reach out to you aboutnd message is sent. the administrator would like to talk about a potential business opportunity with mr. katcathy. it is just the latest in a long stream of ethically questionable moves and spending gaffes that has ethic experts amazed just how pruitt is able to hold onto his job. >> it's mind boggling how long the list of potential ethics violations are. >> reporter: earlier this week it was revealed pruitt sent an epa staffer on government time to run personal errands including asking the trump hotel about buying a used mattress for him. a list of probes or investigations into pruitt is a long one, from leasing a d.c. condo from a lobbyist's wife below cost to spending tax dollars on first class travel and weekend trips home, handing out jobs and pay raises to political aides, holding questionable meetings with companies seeking epa favors. 13 separate probes now underway involving pruitt and yet he keeps his job. you don't doubt that is the message scott pruitt is saying through his

pruitt. >> scott is doing a great job where he is. >> reporter: this as president trump breaks his silence on stormy daniels and the payment to keep quiet days before the election. >> no. no. what else? >> then why did michael cohen make those if there was no truth to her allegations? >> you have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney, and you'll have to ask michael cohen. >> reporter: trump's comments were help his case. >> you can't have an agreement if one party claims they knew nothing about one of the principle terms of the agreement. so the president just shot himself in the foot, thrown his attorney basically, michael cohen, under the bus in the process. >> reporter: mr. trump literally tossed out his prepared remarks about tax reform. >> that would be a little boring. >> reporter: choosing to resurrect some of the rhetoric used on the campaign trail. >> everybody said, oh, he was so tough. i used the word rape. yes, they came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at

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scott pruitt resigning. he never mentions the seismic scandals only citing the pressures on him and his family for reasons for leaving. what do you make of the person who will replace him? >> donald trump said he would drain the swamp, that catchphrase that caught a lot of attraction during the 2016 election. and of course what we've seen in scott pruitt is that the swamp can come in all shapes and sizes can actually be in the republican party as well. and when you have essentially a bureaucratic spending taxpayer money on first class sfloigts and soundproof phone booths in their room and living for cheap with lobbyist in rooms, i mean it's hugely questionable to say the very least, which is why you have all these outstanding complaints and investigations against him. and at some point i think probably quite a while back now, you know, that switch would have flipped and the president should have said we can't have this in the party, especially within the environmental protection agency. because what donald t

plus chutzpah and scott pruitt.old the embattled epa chief, told the president he should be named attorney general. if you are having a

pruitt. this is becoming just something else added to the list. at opportunity never actually materialized, but it's one more thing we're seeing scott pruitt do here as he's und 12 federal investigations right now for a including his travel expenses, flying first class on taxpayer dollars living situation, his coziness with lobbyist, his blatant disregard for the taxpayer dollar and we' seeing

that's exactly what pruitt did in this case. white house was blind sided by the story about the condo. and now growing frustration with pruitt. they are looking to him to resolve this problem. for their part, the epa is saying there was nothing ethically wrong with this arrangement. that even though he may have paid below market value, it was not considered a gift. obviously ethics watchdogs are looking at this and saying otherwise. meanwhile, president trump and white house aides say nothing on the record to defend pruitt on this issue. an indication of how they are not very happy with how he's handled it so far. >> all right. abby phillip, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >>> a deputy managing editor of "the weekly standard" with us as well as senior citizen politics reporter steven cullinson. thank you for being here. i want to show you a picture. five other people in the administration who have had questions about their travel, about disrupcease and the-- di discrepancies and traveling. how many in this amount of time,

so, i look at attorney general pruitt as someone who understands balance. the epa is out of balance. they've gone to the extreme. >> yeah. >> he will bring it back in balance and we all want clean water and we all want clean air. but there is an extreme where you start driving up the costs of living and doing business in america, overregulation and then the federal government stomping on states rights. he will correct that overreach. >> now, during the primary, donald trump said that he actually vowed to abolish the epa. is that really what's happening here? >> no, it's not abolishing the epa but bringing them back and understanding the importance of states rights and be energy independent and we need a policy which includes fossil fuels. it won't be abolishing the epa but rolling back hundreds, if not thousands of regulations that was simply an overreach. let's bring them back into the common sense world where we all live and not have the extremists. >> congressman, does scott pruitt believe in climate change? >> i think all of us, including scott pruitt w

what scott pruitt is hiding. >> a watchdog group filed a lawsuit to get access to pruitt's e-mail communicationsh the fossil fuel industry. thursday, an oklahoma district judge ruled pruitt must turn over 3,000 e-mails by next tuesday. >> he's been hiding information from the senate and the american people about the truth of the relationship. how deep his ties go to the industries that he would be basically charge with regulating. >> he's filed at least a dozen lawsuits against the epa. and in his confirmation hearing, senators revealed, pruitt used oklahoma state stationary and signed his name to letters drafted by energy lobbyists. those letters then sent to federal agencies criticizing environmental regulations. democrats pushed to delay pruitt's confirmation vote time to allow review of the e-mails. >> it's not the worst thing in the world to properly vet someone who will have immense power. >> but senate republicans refuse to delay. >> with they want to move him slowly as possible and the ones they've deemed controversial, they want to give their left wing agitators enough time to get organ

is on trump's radar and asking people about their opinions about pruitt. >> so why, if pruitt was told by the white house not to do these interviews, would he have gone ahead and done them? >> that's a good question. pruitt obviously knows that the president watches television. i think he was trying to make his case that these scandals and issues were much ado about nothing, particularly going on fox news which, as we know, is the president's favorite channel. i think it was a can case to try to do a pr offensive and get himself on sure footing. that backfired it seems, according to several officials i've spoken to, that may have gotten him on worse footing instead of surer footing. >> pruitt is really doing exactly what the president wants him to do at the epa with environmental regulations. the president had promised that they would be cut to favor business. that's what pruitt has been doing. it's not like a replacement would exactly be easy to confirm. right? >> right. there's been a groundswell support from conservatives today. you saw rand paul tweeted his support to the president

>> donald trump is -- is happy with scott pruitt because what scott pruitt has done is hand over theal protection agency to the industries that the environmental protection agency is supposed to regulate. among the -- in some ways, i'm less concerned about him getting the secret service to go get his laundry as ridiculous and pathetic as that is, as the fact that we now know he was having secret meetings with industry representatives because this is a man not interested in regulating industries that pl-- that pollute the environment. he's interested in handing over industries that pollute the government. that's why donald trump is so happy with him. i suspect what will happen is that donald trump eventually will decide that he's become a political liability, and he will look for someone else who does the same thing as scott pruitt in terms of not protecting our environment, but is more discreet in terms of his personal corruption. >> if according to the official at the white house they're inching toward this tipping point, what is the tipping point for scott pruitt, peter, what does

that's the question about scott pruitt. he's surrounded by ethical concerns and appear to be growing. today we learned he demanded vip treatment to cut through washington traffic and according to three knowledgeable sources a member of his security team was demoted after refusing to do that. that's on top of the expensive travel, the $50 a night room. the bottom line is he's got issues. the president has been weighing a promotion for him and firing the attorney general he seems the love to hate on. late today aboard air force one the president weighed in. what have you learned about president considering replacing sessions with pruitt? >> it's been a discussion here at the white house. the president has been eyeing the attorney general. no one has been upset with a longer period of time than jeff sessions. scott pruitt would have been an answer to that. he could have been an basicing attorney general. i'm told in the last day or so the president still discussing it but not as much. the reality is he did not think he did wel

>> is scott pruitt at a tipping point? cnn has learned he's suggested replacing jeff sessions himself. >> and a youth soccer team remains trapped in a thai cave. no clear way out. diving is considered a huge risk, but more rain could force rescuers to act, literally bracing against time. good morning, everyone. welcome to a special holiday edition of early start. >> it's july 4th. happy 4 of july. 5:00 a.m. in the east. we start with president trump and the first lady who celebrated at the white house hosting military families for an afternoon picnic. no shortage of headlines. members of the senate intelligence committee breaking with their house colleagues. the senate panel says the intel community was correct in its assessment. russia tried to boost president trump's election by meddling in the election. they said there was no reason to dispute the conclusion that putin tried to help the election chances. that confirmed by the entire national security team even though the president himself has repeatedly refused to say r