we are reconvening our business meeting to consider nomination of attorney general scott pruitt to be epa administrator. yesterday the minority members of the committee chose to boycott this business meeting. it is disappointing that they chose that course of action. we will not allow it to obstruct. as i stated yesterday this committee has conducted an extremely thorough and fair process of reviewing attorney general's pruitt's nomination. that includes hearing of length, number of kwegs and timely responses. it is unprecedented to delay for incoming president to this extent. we had an election last november. the people spoke and now it is time to set up a functioning government. that includes a functioning epa. to do that this committee has to do its work. so at this time i ask for a motion to suspend rules 2 a, 4 and 8 of the rules of the environment and public works committee for the duration of this business meeting. >> i so move. >> is there a second? >> all those in favor. all opposed nay. and the opinion of the chair the ayes have it and rules 2 a, 4 and 8 of rules of committe

you have to be scott pruitt bad. >> you have to be scott pruitt bad and clearly the number is 13. we now know what the number is. >> we have a floor. >> we have a floor. thank god, we have a floor. >> we do. >> and so here's the thing that is so amusing and amazing about all of this, nicolle, is that scott pruitt didn't care and neither did donald trump to get to 13. let's not overlook that. thank you. >> he's not getting pushed out because he was corrupt. >> exactly. >> he's not getting pushed out because there were 13. he's not getting pushed out because he was weird enough to wear tactical pants in a phone booth. he's getting pushld out because he was getting bad pr for donald trump. >> as we were talking before, the president said you're getting way too much press now. >> above me. so here's the list. we put this up. so he ordered raises for two aides despite the white house rejecting the request. he spent $3 million of taxpayer funds on a security detail. biometric locks were installed in his office door. i don't know what that means. came under fire for renting the bedroom.

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

scott pruitt is not the only scott pruitt in town. we've talked about andrew wheeler who, you know, worked for robert murray and helped draft that 16-point plan of regulations he would like to see undone, all of which were then undone. there are other people with these ties and at this point, i think the folks in the fossil fuel industry, in the dark money groups, want to start thinking about scott pruitt as more of a liability than an asset. >> thanks to you guys both. eric lipton, investigative reporter for "the new york times" and jay michaelson, columnist at the daily beast for your reporting and analysis. with me now is democratic senator mazie hirono of hawaii. good to see you. tell me what your take is on this. every week we tend to be discussing some other senior administration official who's on the line for something. what's your take on scott pruitt? >> i don't think he's long for his job. however, he's just one in a long parade of administration appointees for whom the words "conflict of interest," "ethical violations," "br

spicer: for mr.your questions pruitt on topic. i would note that he has a flight to get to, so we will try to keep this relatively short. mr. pruitt: it's good to be with you this afternoon. i want to first begin by saying the president made a very courageous decision yesterday, on behalf of america. he put america's interest first with respect to environmental agreements and international discussions. i appreciate his fortitude, i appreciate his leadership in this matter, the discussion of the last several weeks has been one of thoughtful deliberation. he heard many voices. voices across a wide spectrum of vantage points and the president made a very informed and thoughtful and important decision for the country's benefit. but we have to remember when it comes to the environmental agreement and international agreements with respect to things like the paris agreement is we have nothing to be apologetic about as a country. we reduced our co2 footprint to levels of the early 1990's, from 2000 to 2014 we reduce the carbon footprint b

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

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

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

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 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. if my colleagues in the senate really want to stop pollution, we can start by keeping scott pruitt from going to lead the e.p.a. our environment should not be for sale, should not be neglected, and should not be turned aaside from being the core mission of the a. e.p.a. and i think we all should stand firm against the nomination of scott pruitt to lead that important agency. with that, mr. president, thank you. and i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, it is an absolute honor to rise to speak in behalf of scott pruitt he has been a leader in the state of oklahoma and struggling to enforce the law in oklahoma as its written and as its consistent with the constitution. he's a statesman, he's a a dedicated public servant. as administrator of the earnings i fully expect -- as administrator of the e.p.a., i fully expect scott to be able to follow every law to do what's best for the present and for the fut

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,

pruitt claims he did not know about the raises. and he said he canceled the bonuses when he found out about them. pruitt is also under scrutiny for renting a apartment from a lobbyist that represents fossil fuels.>> this individual doesn't have clients that have business before this agency. -- >> he does not represent exxon mobil. >> is firm has -- >> they do not represent them at this point. >> eric? >> thank you. meanwhile democratic and republican lawmakers are calling for pruitt to resign. four for the president to dump him. the president recently has endorsed him so what is the latest on this? quite explained outcome of the white house and the president seem to be standing by the president. yesterday sources tell fox news that he met with president trump in the oval office and they discussed some of these controversies according to a source, the presidential pruitt he did a good job and he wants him to continue. the press secretary, sarah sanders, says the white house is conducting a review. she would not go into hypothetical

pruitt. we got the news of these top staffers' resignations today, the day after news broke that scott pruitt had directed yet another senior epa staffer to ask the chik-fil-a corporation for help getting his wife a chik-fil-a franchise. by way of illustrating life at this government agency right now, i want to show you the response when reporters got news of the first top staffer quitting mr. pruitt's staff today. this is from the atlantic.com, quote, when reached by foam, johan wilcox, an epa spokesperson would not comment. he said, quote, you have a great day. you're a piece of trash. consider not just what the trump administration has done to the epa, consider what they've done to the job of covering the epa as a reporter, on the taxpayers' dime. you have a great day. you're a piece of trash. joining us now is lisa friedman. she's a climate reporter for "the new york times." ms. friedman, thank you very much for join us. i'm sorry that your job has become marginally more hostile than it h

they love scott pruitt. they feel very strongly about scott pruitt. and they love scott pruitt. >> i bet they do. the president standing by his man tonight, publicly expressing confidence in the epa administrator, scott pruitt, now under fire amid mounting ethics scandals, including his $50-a-night condo rental arrangement, courtesy of a top energy lobbyist. that comes at the same time that "the new york times" reports certain epa officials were penalized for questioning pruitt's spending and management. according to that paper, some of those officials had very close ties to the trump white house and to republicans on the hill. also new, "the washington post" reporting tonight two epa officials confirmed that pruitt endorsed the idea last month of giving big pay raises to two close aides. nbc news has also learned that president trump as recently as last week had been considering replacing attorney general, jeff sessions, with scott pruitt. but administration officials tell us that's unlikely now, given recent reports about pruitt's conduct. and today

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

scott pruitt running this agency. we have since learned there was an effort to buy him a $100,000 a month private jet membership to have a private jet on standby at taxpayers' expense whenever he wanted to go anywhere and he used an emergency contingency provision in the safe drinking water act meant to hire scientists in the event of a drinking water emergency, he used it instead to hire lobbyists and spokespeople and to give big raises, 30, 40, $50,000 raises to young staff members he brought with him to -- from oklahoma. we then learned that one of those staffers who he gave a $30,000 raise to, she had among her taxpayer funded responsibilities, the job of shopping for potential apartments for scott pruit in washington d.c. and as you no doubt have come to know, that has since led to revelations that at least for the first year in office, where scott pruitt lived in d.c. was in a swanky capitol hill townhouse coowned by an energy lobbyist who charged scott pruitt a princely sum of $50 a night to stay there but he o

the head of the epa, scott pruitt, stepdown.is resignation follows a serieh of scandals the dogged his tenure. president trump announced it in his usual fashion, by tweet, saying "i have acceptethe resignation of scott pruitt. within the agency, scott has done an outstanding job and i will always be thankful to him for this." he has been the subject of numerous stories c which haled into question his conduct. for more on this most recentin shakeup, i am by the north america reporter. starting with you, this has been going on for a long time. why has he decided to resign now? >> i think you was pushed to the white house. 12 different investigations were in t tping point. there was a new york s timry about the firing of an aid that she disagreed about meetings wanted deleted from the public record. it was an accumulation of scandal after scandal, and the white house tolerates they liked the policies he was implementing at the w epa, but th ultimately the presidents this vision he said this was enough. jane: theres no mention of an

bottom line, scott pruitt is out.ehind me on capitol hill is terribly surprised. after a series of bad headlines over recent weeks and months making him look bad and reflecting poorly on the trump administration. bottom line, there will be a new epa administrator picked by president trump the i think a lot of republicans on capitol hill will be breathing a sigh of relief. >> trace: mike, we talked about this, for color on this, may have come out of the bloo here, a lot -- blue here. a lot of people and controversy, but yesterday for the fourth of july he was at the white house, he was there, he was -- he seemed in good spirits from everybody. and apparently, the decision was made some time this morning. as we said, president trump is now on his way to montana. he is campaigning for matt rosendale there, campaigning against jon tester. the president releasing this tweet above air force one. i want to, if i can, quickly, want to read this, again. i now have it. it says, i have accepted the resignation of scott pruitt as

pruitt's nomination. this is from all sources. i received 1,880 letters opposing his nomination. pretty amazing. we don't get these kind of volume of letters, e-mails or faxes or letters. 1,800 opposed. other the past three months editorial boards across the country have expressed their own serious concerns about this tpho*eupl as well. i -- nominee as well. i want to share a few of those with my colleagues and the world this morning. back in december "the new york times" wrote these words and i will read them. this is december -- a couple of months ago. had donald trump spent an entire year sko*uring the country for someone to weaken the clean air and clean water laws to repudiate america's leadership role in the global battle against climate change, he could not have found a more proper candidate. that is a pretty bold charge. it goes on to say that he is a an aggressively bad choice. again, the e.p.a. wasn't created in a law signed by a democrat, it was by a republican. the clean air act clean water ac

. >> what about scott pruitt? he's part of your -- >> let me be clear about draining the swamp. rolling back regulation, rolling back special interest, cutting taxes for families. >> respectfully, the essence challenge of scott pruitt. >> that's the reason you see this country standing tall on the world stage. i think it's the reason why we're making the progress that we're making around the wild wider world. >> do you feel fcomfortable wit the behavior of scott pruitt? >> he's done an outstanding job lifting the burden of regulations stifling american business across this country. we believe that much of the economic growth we've seen over the last 15 months has been as much a result of deregulation as it's been that the tax reforms that are just now beginning to have an impact on the economy. we're very grateful for scott pruitt's leadership and i just would tell you that the president and i will continue to stay focused on all the kind of

he even floated replacing sessions with pruitt this week. what do you know about that? >> don, certainly a number of developments here today. but as for scott pruitt, we do know the president has been thinking about this for several week 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 for recusing himself in the russia investigation. 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, ju

he was the deputy to scott pruitt.ruitt, injure wheeler is a former coal lobbyist. >> someone representing the coal industry. is it possible that prewitt found out about his recognition -- resignation via tweet? >> it is very possible. was never an inner circle guy. you didn't see him conversing with the president very often. i don't know the donald trump will continue a relationship but given scott pruitt's relationship -- interest in random rating himself i wouldn't be surprised if he figures out a way to do pretty well in private industry. >> what is the unfinished business for the administration at the epa? >> there is so much that they have only started doing in terms of the deregulatory initiatives. .hey have to finish they are working on the rollback on methane regulations and water pollution rule. there are still frankly some conservatives who are pushing the epa to take on the endangerment ending to redo the epa's landmark conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions were a danger to public health and welfare. wha

it sounds like scott pruitt is serving scott pruitt. >> what's your reaction to that, clarence?s your assessment of what he's doing and when you're hearing conservative commentators like that and saying scott pruitt is not serving anybody but scott pruitt? >> it's a different experience hearing eric bolling criticizing a fellow conservative like that. i can't say it's not well deserved. everyone knows about scott pruitt's attitude. he's a former attorney general who has one head for the law and another for ethics. he seems to be entirely blind or tone deaf to ethics. we've seen it repeatedly. and we have a situation where he is being confronted by a citizen out there in the regular dining world. and i've editorialized against this sort of a demonstration in public, i can't say that it wasn't well deserved in pruitt's case. >> so to be clear what do you make of what chrkristin did and what others have done in this administration? >> i'm old enough to remember the original sit-ins down in north carolina that started the '60s phase of the civil rights movement. you protested by sit

scott pruitt is drawing attention. he has enemies because he's deregulating the epa which a lot of american believe it protects americans from the corporate america. why make all this noise about it. donald trump can't afford to have another cabinet secretary undergoing a cabinet secretary hearing. he's had so many because he's had to fire so many of his people. for the man who will bring us the back, he hasn't. he's created deeper swamp than we ever had. we need to sweep it clean nap can be the only reason. you couldn't have said it better. the role model is at the top. that's what's happened. it's okay if they cheat the taxpayers and kill the environment and make it to the point that all of us will suffer. science has gone out the window at epa and animals are in danger. people are in danger. we need to stop this. >> the fake media is pushing hard i'm going to replace ag jeff sessions with epa chief scott pruitt. who is doing great job but is totally -- you can replace those words with anything including about the ru

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

scott pruitt, in the president's eyes, scott pruitt was successfully deregulating the epa by replacingople with political people, with a mission, you know, that just isn't in keeping with what the epa had in the past. but it is the president's new mission of reducing regulation. >> reporter: scott pruitt is gone from the epa but his legacy will long endure. what he did in terms of rolling back obama-era and even bush era and bush 41 era environmental protections, that was a core goal not just of this administration but a lot of congressmen. conservatives who have long thought the epa was overzealous, overregulatory. when you talk to conservatives on capitol hill, yes, they hold their nose on some of the things president trump has done, particularly with tariffs and going the other way on free trade. we've most recently seen that with the tiff and back and forth with the chamber of commerce, a core long-standing republican group. but conservatives always tend to praise trump on two things. number one, neil gorsuch, and now potentially a second supreme court nominee. two, the dismantling

scott pruitt is still in his job. she's gone. but we have new information with the senior counsel that may show this to be an even bigger problem than it's already understood to be. this information come from the committee where carper is the ranging democrat. a staffer on the committee tonight gave us some of the background of what led to this request from senator carper. just so you know, this is exactly how carper put it. "i write to request the inspector general conduct an immediate review of the epa efforts to prevent fraud related to employee -- i am additionally informed that ms. dravis was likely compensated as a full-time employee throughout that time. now we can report that what led to this sort of remarkable claim is that this committee, the environment committee in the senate, was contacted by multiple sources on this matter over a period of four to six weeks, multiple sources contacted the committee via calls, e-mails and in-person meetings, all raising the same issue about samantha drafis being the senior counsel at

goodbye scott pruitt.e news of these top staffers' resignations today, the day after news broke that scott pruitt had directed yet another senior epa staffer to ask the chick-fil-a corporation for help getting his wife a chick-fil-a franchise. by w of illurating l this government agencyight now, i want to show you th sponse when reporters got news of the first top staffer quitting mr. pruitt's staff today. this is from theatlantic.com,

inmate robert pruitt charged with his murder. pruitt's attorney hints that his client was framed. there were others who would have more reason to want neagle dead. >> there were those who had a motive to have officer neagle silenced. he was in the process of writing a letter of grievance concerning several things. >> after neagle's murder three officers were arrested. >> officers martinez, he was in charge for gathering witness statements, asking what did you see type of thing. he got indicted the same day i did. >> martinez was caught in a sting operation carrying $60,000 of what he believed to be prison drug money. he was convicted and sentenced to eight years probation. did he not respond to al jazeera's request for comment comment. >> what other motive would there be for someone to kill neagle. >> some say that he was on to something that was been og there? >> can you elaborate. >> i don't knowin 2013 nine more employees were arrested for receiving bribes to allow drugs and cellphones to enter the prison. the federal indictment note agriculture of corruption. >> there was stil

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

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 -

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

scott pruitt is standing strong in his job. defense of scott pruitt. jimmy (shouting): james! he's survived record rain and a supplier that went belly up. so while he's proud to have helped put a roof over the heads of hundreds of families, he's most proud of the one he's kept over his own. brand vo: get the most out of your money, whether you're using quickbooks smart invoicing to get paid twice as fast or automatically tracking your mileage. smarter business tools for the world's hardest workers. quickbooks. backing you. ithe race for governort. has turned into a scam. gavin newsom's trying to elect a republican who was endorsed by trump. and villaraigosa's being bankrolled by a handful of billionaires. it's everything that's wrong with politics. and none of it is helping struggling families. here's my pledge to you. i'll keep our budget balanced. invest in affordable housing. fight for universal healthcare. and stand up to donald trump. as governor, you can trust me to do what's right- because i always have. a crazy bit of breaking news. scott pru sit still employed. he rem

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

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

the president saying that scott pruitt's resignation up up to scott pruitt. the two of them had been talking about this a couple days now. pruitt felt that he had become a disadministration and he didn't want to distract from what the president is trying to do. >> it was death by a thousand self-inflicted cuts. scott pruitt gave his resignation to president trump today. he told the president, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family are unprecedented and taken a sizable toll on all of us. pruitt was beset by controversy. first class travel, a security phone booth. renting his daughter from a lobbyist, inappropriate staff raises. asking chick-fil-a for a franchise for his wife and asking his staff to get body lotion to a mattress. the inspector general had launched 14 ethics investigations. the white house described the allegations as troublesome. yet even on his way out the door, president trump lauded him in a tweet saying within the agency, scott has done and outstanding job and i will always be thankful to him for this. yesterday, pruitt showed

. >>> then another day, another scott pruitt scandal. >> i think scott pruitt is doing a great job. >> new signs tonight that pruitt's job could actually be in jeopardy. >>> and after year of president trump, guess what republican candidates are campaigning on? >> we don't need to investigate our president. we need to arrest hillary. >> when "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. while the presidential families gathered over the weekend to mourn the death of former first lady barbara bush, the current occupant of the white house was golfing, rage tweeting, and attempting it appears to influence the testimony of a potential witness against him. first lady melania trump attended the funeral on saturday, posing for a photo with the obamas, the clintons and two generations of bushes. but her husband stayed behind at his estate in florida where he had plenty of time to catch up on twitter and cable news, two of his favorites, and where he somehow seems to have come across this story published friday on his allegedly abusive treatment of longtime aide mic

does pruitt survive? >> is seems like -- first of all, nobody predicted anything and can which is why folks are not making a prediction because they don't know what their boss will do. but this reminds -- me of other incidences where the president has one position and the administration has another and he is comfortable with that. if you are just basing it off the great job that he's been doing for conservatives and in terms of the agenda and trump statements, i think scott pruitt should feel confident right now. but as confidence in a situation like this. >> alfonso, it is like the way evangelicals have turned their -- turn their head. no, no, we're happy with the policies he's implementing to we're going to -- no, we'll cover our ears and turn away. is there -- where does that line make it where conservatives are defending unethical behavior? >> it is difficult. because with pruitt, you have to understand he's a conservative hero. even before he became a administrator of the epa. so he's respected withi

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

pruitt to tell him the time had come. the president also told reporters he's narrowed his supreme court picks to about five people. a source familiar with the selection process told nbc news it's down to three, these three. at tonight's rally in grape falls the president was teasing up his big reveal. >> as you know there's now a vacancy on the supreme court. and if you turn in monday at 9:00, i think you're going to be extremely happy. right? and they're all great. they're all great. >> now, from there you can say things went off the rails. among other things the president went after maxine waters, elizabeth warren and the nfl. >> we turn away thousands of people. they never say i'm a great speaker. i've broken more than john elten records. and by the way, i don't have a musical instrument. i don't have a guitar or organ. no organ. elton has an organ. yes, she's a low iq individual. pocahontas, they always want me to apologize for saying it and i here by -- oh, yeah, i want to apologize. pocahontas, i apologize to you. i

but that's what scott pruitt gets. we can't tell these days when the president starts to praise somebody more or less, whether that person is nearing the exits or not. what does it look like, what does a scott pruitt resignation look like? is it a resignation, a firing, a moving of scott pruitt somewhere else? >> i can tell you all of us are holding our phones close to see what's going to be tweeted. but, you know, the general thinking i think around this is -- and look, we've talked to people close to mr. pruitt who think he could be gone as early as tomorrow. we've talked to people who think he will stay until he wants to leave. however it happens, we're told pretty consistently that, you know, the president will let him leave with dignity, perhaps in a way that he wants to leave, perhaps after a regulatory victory. one thing to note is that the epa intends to submit a new version of the clean power plan. that was former president obama's signature climate plan, to the white house for review this week. that's a prett

the white house said no, pruitt did it anyway.kind of thing signals to trump not so much corruption as the threat of another ambitious person in the circle. >> unmatchable analysis, howard, thank you so much. i have nothing to add. great man, thank you so much for that great analysis. >>> up next, senator mitch mcconnell is sounding the alarm bell about a potential wipeout, you know, wipeout, like a tsunami coming at the republicans this november. but can democrats get enough momentum to actually do it for 2018? can they get to the 218 they need in the howwhite house to impeach this president? everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ i'm all about my bed. this mattress is dangerously comfortable. when i get in, i literally say, ahh. introducing