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

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

pruitt. you might say he's a carbon copy of mr. pruitt. and if you look at his history, the history of mr. wheeler, you find a very cozy relationship. between the nominee, mr. wheeler, between mr. pruitt, the current administrator, and an army of lobbyists for the coal industry. in fact, mr. wheeler, as we've noted, has been a lobbyist for that industry, and if you look at his relationships, you find that, as he was advising murray energy, murray energy was at that time a top donor to scott pruitt's super pac. this is before mr. pruitt became the administrator of the e.p.a. he had a super pac. and murray energy, for whom mr. wheeler lobbied, was one of the top donors to that pruitt super pac. and the relationship between pruitt and wheeler and bob murray gets even cozier when we see that bob murray was a co-plaintiff in eight of the 14 lawsuits that pruitt brought against the e.p.a. before pruitt became the administrator. so i want to get this right. you have mr. wheeler, who was the lobbyist for mr. murray, and mr. murray joined with prui

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

i too support scott pruitt. let me say, i think objective observers who watched his testimony would have to agree that it was unimpressive -- it was on impressive display of knowledge and patience. attorney general pruitt demonstrated that he was intelligent, and -- articulated, thoughtful, patient, and knowledgeable. because of that he will eventually be confirmed. we are going to get through this. the people on the other side of the aisle are friends of mine. i'm disappointed in them today. frankly, i was disappointed in hearingnduct during the . they were taking a complicated witness tosking the answer yes or no what we all know that those issues do not call for a yes or no answer your putting up a poster of campaign contributors to the republican attorney general's association that inow suggest that peach the ability of attorney to bel pruitt administrator of the epa. it was silly. it was beneath them. again, we will get past this. it was a disappointment to me. this action today by the democratic members of

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.

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

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's nomination. i would like to read two of the letters i have received. georgia is a ph.d. student at the university of hawaii. she wrote, quote, i strongly oppose scott pruitt's confirmation as e.p.a. administrator. mr. pruitt is a climate change denier who has actively worked against the mission of the agency. as a ph.d. student in science, i know we need an e.p.a. administrator that respects science an supports clean air, clean water and a healthy environment. pruitt is the wrong choice for our nation and must be rejected. end quote. kako also wrote to explain what this fight means to her. quote. this is not a bipartisan issue, but it is as much an american issue as it is a hawaiian issue, a human issue and as much as it is for mother earth. i ask that you be vigilant in the face of climate change deniers. mahalo for everyone living today and going to be born tomorrow. welch come too -- we've come too far over the past eight years to let someone like scott pruitt destroy the progress we've made.

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.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 the maxwell smart

secretary pruitt: if i may. i think what's important with respect to the scientific transparency, it doesn't apply to only certain studies. it applies to all third party studies. every type. many members on this committee i'm sure would be very concerned if a.p.i. went out and did a study, didn't provide the methodology, data, provided conclusions to the e.p.a. and the e.p.a. acted on rule making with respect to methane or other issues, there would be tremendous concerns about that. it applies to all third party science, irrespective of the source. it just simply says data, methodology, conclusions matter and the american people need to be able to consume that. mr. cramer: it seems to me. i appreciated the inquiry earlier, maybe you could elaborate, how personal data can be protected and is protected. nobody's asking for the names of pollution m of every source that's ever happened in the world. not asking for personal data. we're asking simply for the science to be revealed. you can protect the personal data, r

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

scott pruitt is a crook. he's cost taxpayers millions and millions of dollars. >> what do you think the chances of that are? is this over? he resigns and it's over or do you think there's legal jeopardy for him? >> i think there's legal jeopardy. there's certainly legal jeopardy. does a politicized justice department follow up or will there be an independent investigation of some kind? there could have. he's damaged this country enormously. he's just been so blatant about his disregard for the law, as trump is as well. so i think trump -- i think what really happened is that he should have been fired in. in a normal administration he wouldn't have been appointed. but even in this administration he should have been fired months ago but he sees himself in pruitt. he likes the swash buckling, take what the hell you want and who gives a damn what the public says. they're both a great victims player. they cause themselves trouble and then blame somebody else. >> there was also the whole question raised by hans nic

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 -- 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,

administrator pruitt and his maryland, arers, the devoted parents of two children. got to love those names. administrator pruitt, in addition to his years of experience in the public sector is also a successful entrepreneur. as a co-owner and general managing partner of oklahoma city's aaa minor league baseball affiliate, the oklahoma city red hawks, he's helped become one of the minor league leaders in attendance. so as you can see our new administrator has not only a record of public service but also business experience that will serve him well as he under takes his new responsibilities at our agency. of course i will leave it to administrator pruitt to share his vision and principles for his leadership at epa, but i would like to highlight just a few examples from his biography, some examples of how he has worked with others during his service in the public sector that i think will be of particular interest to you. as attorney general for oklahoma mr. pruitt worked with his democratic counterpart in arkansas regarding water quality in the illinois river which cro

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

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

somebody was using it to attack scott pruitt. but this picture had nothing to do with scott pruitt. this was the e.p.a. led by gina mccarthy. my response to the spill was that the e.p.a. should be held accountable to the same level in which e.p.a. holds private businesses accountable. i think that's a pretty good standard. but if the e.p.a. is going to -- they make sure that somebody lives up to a standard, that the e.p.a. live up to the same standard. that basic standard for the e.p.a. to me, because the agency called the spill, it simply must apply the same requirements to itself that it does to a private company. so it was with great disappointment but very little surprise that when the e.p.a. decided to not subject itself to those same standards they walked away from the promises that they made. sure the e.p.a. had standards under barack obama. they were double standards. the obama administration's e.p.a.'s refusal to not receive and process the personal injury or economic loss claims arising out of this spill at the gold king mine in southwest colorado is appalling. and i simpl

joining me now is scott pruitt, mr. trump's for the environmental protection agency and a key player in the president's decision. mr. pruitt, welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> administrator pruitt: good morning chris. >> chris: i want to start with a question you are asked repeatedly on friday. here it is. >> yes or no, does the president believe that the climate change is of real threat to the united? >> administrator pruitt: what's interesting about all the discussions we had through the last several weeks have been focused on one singular issue, is paris good or not for this country? >> chris: let me get this straight, you and the president spent weeks discussing whether he should pull out all the paris climate deal and are never discussed climate change? >> administrator pruitt: it was about the merits and demerits of the deal. when you look at what this country has achieved since the late 1990s, to thousands, we've seen an 18% production atomic reduction in our co2. we are a pre1994 levels. what's interesting a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pruitt. a lot of questions. and she did not have enough time to answer the questions and a little bit of extra time, maybe a week or so, was granted. she answered the questions, as i understand it, fully, completely, directly, and i'll have to be honest with you. i'll read some of the questions that we asked of scott pruitt later today, later tonight, and with examples of the kind of answers he provided. some were reasonably complete, but too many were evasive, indirect or just nonresponsive. and that's -- maybe that's because the chairman only gave him a couple of days to respond. that's not the way we ought to do business around here. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and i see we have been joined by a former governor from the great state of new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i came to the floor today to oppose the nomination of scott pruitt to serve as administrator of the environment

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

pruitt. mr. pruitt intends to prevent the e.p.a. from protecting public health and the environment by reducing the budget by two-thirds. trump transition team member myron ebil made these plans clear. mr. pruitt will cut and then cut some more and then cut some more until the agency we trust to keep us safe is no bigger than when richard nixon was president. so what exactly should we cut? which aspect of public health in our environment are in need of less protection and research? well, let me tell you about some of the things e.p.a. has accomplished since its creation. the e.p.a. helps protect us from toxins. from 1948 to 1988, 30 million homes were treated for termite infestation with two related, very long-lasting chemicals, heptachloro and cordate. they're among the 12 worst known persistent, organic pollutants. a rogues gallery called it the dirty dozen. a long-time study found americans have these chemicals in their flood and their fat and the higher the level, the more likely a person is to suffer from dementia, type 2 diabet

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

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

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 this. how much does it cost to lose an organ like i have, to lose a parent or child from cancer? how much sick days and inhalers cost? families already struggling to make ends meet. many of these costs are not in dollars alone. thank you, sarah. sarah is a mother, a registered nurse. she wrote to me earlier this month to express her concerns regarding mr. pruitt's nomination. in her letter she explained to me that she was born in 1978 in western new york state, just miles away from the love canal neighborhood, the site of one of the most appalling environmental disasters in american history. for those who don't know, don't recall, love canal was a planned community that eventually had to be evacuated after 22,000 barrels of toxic waste were dumped in the nearby canal, 22,000 barrels. families whose homes were contaminated with chemicals and toxic waste had to leave. many faced serious health challenges later in their lives. these were the real threats we faced before we had the e.p.a. or la

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

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

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. i hope this is not the new normal. we cannot afford for the epa to go without an administrator for the foreseeable future. this will impact future epa administrator nominees. these precedents for this delay will likely have long term impacts after today's nominee has left office. this boycott not only affects the epa, but also prevents this committee from organizing. no one can complain that the trump administration and its policies, if they sabotage the very formation of the committee that it is supposed to conduct the oversight. that is supposed to be condulting the oversight. there are a number of consequences to not having a fully functional epa and a fully function environmental and public works committee. there are key issues for the ep, and the senate epw senate committee that we could and should be working on, including the waers the of the united states policy, cold war legacy pollution cleanup, addressing brown fields and insuringing new t tosco legislation. this boycott is

scott pruitt. she is accused by "the new york times" of august ready a secretive alliance with the nation's top energy producers to fight obama's climate efforts. fromll get response 350.org and food and water arch. we will speak with the texas republican member of the electoral college who publicly announced he will not vote for donald trump. could this be the start of a rebellion within the republican party? if the judge orders in and to michigan recount, , we will spek with john bonifaz. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president elect donald trump has scottced he will pruitt the head of the epa. pruitt claimed the climate science change is far from settled. he is seen as a close ally of the fossil fuel industry. in 2014, "the new york times" revealed pruitt another republican attorneys general had formed an unprecedented secretive a aligns with the top energy producers to fight oh by ms. climate -- obama's clim

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