White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley on Thursday refused to defend EPA Director Scott Pruitt after his disastrous interview with Fox News correspondent Ed Henry.
During an appearance on Fox News, Gidley was asked about the recent reports that President Donald Trump could fire Pruitt.
"I can't speak to the future of Scott Pruitt," Gidley admitted. "I can just talk about where we are now. And that is that the White House is aware of these reports [of alleged corruption]. We're obviously looking into those. We don't have any announcements as regards to staffing right now. But we're aware. And we believe that some of these questions need to be answered."
"What is it that you're aware of?" Fox News host Sandra Smith asked the White House spokesperson.
"Well, we've seen the reports," Gidley replied. "I mean, Ed Henry did an interview [on Fox News] obviously last night. You played a clip of it there. We've seen it. We know some of the news reports that have come out in some of the publications chronicling issues going on over there [at the EPA]."
Gidley insisted that Trump demands "the highest level of ethics" from all of his staffers.
"But in the meantime, we're looking into this," he said. "Because the president wants that level of accountability."
"Has Scott Pruitt been maintaining the highest ethical standards?" Smith pressed.
"We're looking into this," Gidley repeated. "There's process in place to review some of these actions. We're doing that. But right now, I do have no staff announcements."
