scott pruitt: i do know that. grants $4 billion per year. $84,000 to the university of michigan to study -- you will love this -- and effectiveness -- the effectiveness of using churches to promote environmental causes. $1.5 million went to the university of colorado to study pollution caused by residential cooking in africa. that is an important use of your tax dollars. and last but not least, a unitarian church received an soironmental justice grant, your baseball guy, right? myave had to use some of baseball's that these -- studies for this forum. oklahomaust a guy from , ricky metal. you're probably a huge fan of him. he was third on the home run your favorite baseball player, all-time hit record holder. all of comes to cutting the regulation, are you going to be more like the guy with lots of hits and undo it a bit of a time, or are you going to go for those home runs? scott pruitt: it is good to do both? hits him out of the park and move them down the field. i think it is both. there are some regulations tha

pruitt: we have also grown our gdp. we have always believed we can be about job growth, job creation, stewardship, and taking care of the environment. we can do that collectively. it simply is a false choice to say we must choose between the two. adopt ashat we have to a country and recognize that we have that obligation as we go forward. the president is leaving us in a substantial way. >> we teased a little bit about waters in the united states. mr. pruitt: and the president talked about it. likes for have become regulatory purposes -- links -- lakes for regulatory purposes. why is it so significant for you to take action? mr. pruitt: one of the greatest examples of one of the past administrations taking a step for power is the rule. >> for those who may not know, what is the united states water act? mr. pruitt: the clean water act gives us certain authority as an agency, and there is a definition called waters of the united states. the reason that is important is because if you do find that broadly, if you stretch it

pruitt. he is pruitt. he is accompanied by holly grave who is the chief financial officer for the agency. thank you both for coming back before the subcommittee. just a reminder the colleagues will follow the early bird rule. we'll have six minutes rounds of questions. i anticipate that there will be substantial interest in hearing this morning. so i ask members to try to stick with the time limit. we can do multiple rounds but the administrator has a hard stop at noon. so we will be working meet that. we also have a couple of votes at noon as well. each year the subcommittee holds a hearing to examine the e.p.a.'s budget request. in some years the budget is the focus of the committee. in other agencies actions draw the majority of the question. i would suggest that the size of the audience this morning is an indicator of substantial interest in this year's hearing. so i look forward to the dialogue. administrator pruitt, when you were before the committee last year, you said that you would work to return

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

pruitt as attorney general took over two years. so a few weeks ago when a lawsuit was filed against mr. pruitt on this very issue, the suit requested that he respond to nine open records requesting for as many as 3,000 e-mails. and as i just said, yesterday a judge said that he has to turn over those records, those documents and has to do so by tuesday. so it's not a long time to wait. it's not a long time to discuss the concerns that our colleagues have with this position. in fact, i'd be happy to come back on wednesday and make sure we have consideration then, giving people time till tuesday. but people are pushing us to vote for this nomination tomorrow. or i should say today at this hour. so what do my colleagues not want to see in the pruitt e-mails? what is it that they don't want to know? attorney general pruitt has been part of close to 30 antienvironmental legal actions. is that what they don't want to see? i know one of my colleagues has said he's going to make polluters pay. he's going to assure that these issues are imp

when the president announced scott pruitt?total delight. >> and did you have a hand in recommending scott pruitt to the president to be epa administrator? >> no comment. >> no comment. >> oklahoma's attorney general scott pruitt named the nominee of president-elect donald trump to lead the environmental protection agency. >> a leading critic of the epa now in line to take its helm. >> narrator: a dozen of bob murray's coal miners showed up at the u.s. senate in january for scott pruitt's confirmation hearing. >> how are you all doing? >> narrator: for pruitt, it was a chance to explain why a critic of the epa should run it. >> i believe there is a very important role for the environmental protection agency. in fact, its involvement in protecting our air quality and improving our nation's waters is extremely important, and the epa has served a very valuable role historically. we must reject as a nation the false paradigm that if you're pro-energy, you're anti-environment; and if you're pro-environment, you're anti-energy. >> na

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.

chief scott pruitt.is scandals haven't come from him working to destroy the environment. they've come from his side husband also. normally when you find out about corruption in d.c. it makes you mad, millions in bribes! but with every pruitt revelation you go, what? >> this morning the controversies keep coming for e.p.a. chief scott pruitt. e-mails show pruitt had one of his people reach out to chick-fil-a. >> he used his position to get his wife a franchise with chick-fil-a. even more astonishing, it's all in writing in government e-mails. >> trevor: you know, i will be honest, this is not the fast fort hood scandal i saw coming out of the white house. if anything, i thought it would be trump getting in trouble for pardoning the hamburglar. in case you didn't know, the hamburglar is in prison. he was trafficking fentanyl. horrible story. ( laughter ) think about this for a second -- you're the head of a major government agency with influence over some of the biggest corporations in the world, and you d

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

pruitt. but mr. wheel comes in this same agenda of pulling back obama era regular lage, working closely with different coanies. that to me may be the big story goesthat the pruitt agenda on without pruitt. and perhaps even more effectively. some people have said some of the regulations are the rollbacks. they face legal challenges and it has been overshadowed by all the controversy around scott pruitt. you have someone who is coming very close to the coal industry who understands the regulations and rule making very well willo better at carrying out the president's agenda of ro ting back thesengs and being more pro-business. >> i think one of the points to make about sco pruitt's demise is that people have failed for very different reasons in this administration. rex tillerson failed because of his inability to develop a relationship with the president. in scott t pruitt's caset was never a problem. he had by all accounts a robust relationship with the president. the esident stood by him beca

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

whose shied is scott pruitt -- whose side is scott pruitt on? the children in his state, one out of ten who has asthma, or devon energy? and we want to put him in charge of the e.p.a., without even having a thorough understanding of what his relationship was with these companies. well, my colleague doing his own ex-us a stiff research about -- ex-oughtive research about the campaign funding he had received and more support from companies like this, it creates an implication. well, let's get to the bottom of what's happening. let's see the e-mails before we vote. what do these say to these corporations? i asked him. he allowed polluting companies to write e-mails to the e.p.a. on his letterhead. did he let any of the children with asthma or their parents write letters that he then just put on his letterhead? people who were suffering from the poor air quality. later the director of government relations at devon energy e-mailed mr. pruitt's office. this we do know, to sproas gratitude -- to express gratitude to the attorney general forge for sendi

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

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

robert: business likes pruitt. when you talko people on wall street, because of all the regulations he's cut ay, there's not only support among the movement conservatives but the business communities. susan: and the president is in touch with executives from the oil and gas industries, the mining industry, theni com feeling the benefits from the de legg regulatory agenda. he hears that the president likes what pruitt isoing and that's what nfls his view of ruitt. if you look at the white house's own dashboard, the.p.a. is right up there with some of the highest volume rollbacks of nip agencies in the governor and that's something that you hear the administration talking about quite often. but the white house said they're investigating this and whatever they find could be impermissi:e. robeeoff, you were at the white house all day. meeting ou make of the with the president and the advice from general kelly last week to get rid of pruitt? geoff: that's right. general kelly and other top white house aides have told th

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

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

pruitt -- mr. pruitt chooses to defend and protect the needs of the biofuel industry over the needs of our children? that is not someone worthy of representing the american people. that is not someone worthy of heading this agency. and, you know, let's just stick to mr. pruitt's own words, not the words of oh, not the words of my constituents, but in his own words. this is what he said about the agency that he's been chosen to lead. mr. pruitt describes himself as, and i quote, a leading advocate against the e.p.a.'s activist agenda. he said this on his linkedin page. we bein accessed this in januarf 2016. on the role of the e.p.a., he said, an i quote, i believe the e.p.a. has a role to play in our republican form of government. air and water quality issues can cross state lines and can sometimes require federal intervention. at the same time, the e.p.a. was never intended to be our nation's front line environmental regulator. unquote. this was his testimony before the house committee on science,

pruitt under pressure. and left as the ethics scandals pile up against him. >>> storm watch. a major announcement coming from stormy daniels' lawyer about the man she claims threaten her to keep silent. >>> order to the border. national guard troops are deployed to the mexico border to help secure it until president trump gets his wall, but who's paying for? >>> also new developments from munster, germany, where a truck plowed into a crowd of people, killing two and injuring dozens more. >>> we'll start this hour with new reporting from axios this afternoon. jonathan swan reporting white house chief of staff john kelly threatened to quit acourting to sources familiar with the event. kelly reportedly blew up at the president at an oval office meeting the same day. a senior administration official tried to pour cold water on the report and said calling it a threat was "probably too strong. it was more venting frustration." this coming amid the president reshuffling his cabinet and escalating trade tensions wi

. >> tonight, scott pruitt is out. epa administrator resigning in disgrace among 15 ongoing investigations. >> i love. we love. >> what happens now and what tipped scott pruitt's exit. >> we put a bigger swamp creature in there. >> scotus decision winds down. >> the president's three alleged finalist for the supreme court vaktcy. >> he is one of the smartest people i've ever known and one of the nicest people i have ever known. >> i am chris hayes and the last time i was at this desk, i interviewed a die hard trump supporter. >> training the swamp and not only did we not drain the swamp, we put a bigger creature in there. >> 48 hours after that interview, after pruitt was spotted at the white house, the president accepted pruitt's resignation. exploiting his office for perks and personal gains. pruitt's extraordinary list prompted debates among historians. hard to think of any politician whose record is more extensive. trying to get his wife a franchise. the d.c. apartment he rented for $50 a knife with a wife of energ

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 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

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

pruitt: thanks, catherine. thank you so much. [applause] mr. pruitt: well, thank you, catherine. it has been a joy to meet catherine and spend time with her. i do thank you for the hat. i'm excited about being in a city that actually has a major league baseball team because that's going to be exciting in the evening to enjoy some good baseball and i'll make sure i wear this hat as we attend those games. and the parent club of my aaa team was the texas rangers, so during the american league we're going to be ok to cheer for the nationals for the national league, so excited about that. it's been an honor and joy to be with you this morning. i've gotten a chance to meet with some of you and as i spent time with you this morning it was abundantly clear to me that you love what you do. there's an old saying that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. so i want to say thank you for catherine, for her leadership the last month and a half or so, it took a while to get here, but thank you for that. and i want to say thank you for those who have served this for quite s

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

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

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,

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

administrator, pruitt resigned.is way to great falls, montana, on his way to a rally, we will have that live. john roberts joins us from the white house with the latest. john, you can't take a break, you have to be on your toes at all times at the white house. >> your head is on

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 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

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

is this larger than pruitt? >> of course it's larger than pruitt. i think it's dawned on the white house that it is. that pruitt is the latest in a long line of pictures that you just put up on the screen. i just literally got off the phone with somebody who is close to the trump circle and should know, and i asked him -- i said, sarah huckabee sanders today at the press conference said in answer to a question about pruitt that the president believes that pruitt has done a good job. and i said, she didn't say he is doing a good job. well, it's a key distinction in trump world, in these end of days dramas that we've seen repeatedly. and he said, good catch. there's a difference. >> yeah, there is. >> and another person told me yesterday and i reported yesterday that inside the white house at the very top, they're saying it's not a question of whether with scott pruitt. it's a question of when. and i think that's partly not just because pruitt -- and i actually think the red flashing lights going through the city is every bit as much of a symbol in th

he hears that the president likes what pruitt is doing and that's what nfls his view of pruitt. if you look at the white house's own dashboard, the e.p.a. is right up there with some of the highest volume rollbacks of nip agenn the governor and that's something tt you hear the administration talking about quite often. t the white house said they're investigating this and whatever they find could be impermissible. robert: geoff, you were at the white house all day. what do you make of the meeting with the president and the advice falm gen kelly last week to get rid of pruitt? geoff: that's right. general kelly and other top white house aides have told the president it's time for pruitt to go.g as l a cabinet member stays in the president's personal good graces a lot seems to be overlooked. robert: we've seen ben carson have trouble.se thetary of housing and urban development. a lot of these outsider come to washington, join the cab net and they don't realize reporters realize it -- everything that's public information gets coverage. a lot of officials come in and don't realize ev

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

pruitt should stay. and that is exactly why i'm concerned that the senate is not giving the deputy administrator nominee the scrutiny he should have. mr. president, andrew wheeler could become the e.p.a. administrator if scott pruitt is forced out or resigns. he should be vetted as if he were the nominee, and there are many reasons to question whether he belongs at the e.p.a. at all. just like mr. pruitt, mr. wheeler has spent his entire political career fighting e.p.a. regulations to protect the environment and protect public health. he has lobbied for many years on behalf of polluters that the e.p.a. regulates. the american people support clean air, clean water. mr. wheeler is out of step with the values and principles of american taxpayers. i know many republicans who support environmental protection, and we have had many decades of bipartisan support for public health, for environmental protection, clean air, clean water, folks don't want their kids to have toxic chemicals in their blood or in their

pruitt is pushing back on that. scrambling for options, more than a thousand people are involved in the desperate rescue to get 12 boys and the soccer coach outside of the cave. the biggest question is now is how to get them out but when. we start this hour with a battle that's intensifying over america's highest court. president trump is at his golf club in sistterling, virginia. the escalating debate fuelling more divisions in an already fragile political environment. one of trump leastrump's leadinr is already joining the action. kelly o'donell, what do we know of the short list and who's facing criticism? >> reporter: good to be with you, craig, we know there are seven names on the active working short list. it includes some of the judges that's been interviewed by the president and also senator mike lee of utah who had a phone call with the president. there is a lot of speculation who may be the short list. among them is brett cavanaukava and amy coney. the two of them are perceive as front runners. the stakes

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

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

pruitt. reducing carbon emissions is the result of smart vehicle emission standards, clean air regulations, and our federal efforts to incentive investments in clean energy, including natural gas and renewables, most of which your epa is now trying to weaken or repeal. you often remind the people that you are a former attorney general and you say that you, your quote, know what it means to prosecute folks. but under your leadership, epa has slowed actions against polluters. and though you have touted epa's recent enforcement successes, saying epa has collected billions of dollars in penalties during your time at the agency, you conveniently forgot to mention that more than 90% of those penalties are from cases prosecuted entirely by the obama administration. you say that you are, quote, getting the agency back to basics. but actions like the one you took just last week, just last week, to reverse critical prosecutions against hazardous air pollutants show that your epa is actually move us bac