President Donald Trump is not expected to ever fire EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in the face of a mounting number of scandals, according to a new report.
After Pruitt’s latest scandal — an attempt to use the EPA to secure a Chick-Fil-A franchise for his wife — one White House insider told ABC News that he expected the EPA administrator would be asked to resign.
“We’ve been looking into all the accusations but nevertheless Trump isn’t fazed,” the official said. “You would have thought after Chick-Fil-A that would have done it but he’s not going anywhere.”
A spokesperson for Chick-Fil-A confirmed to ABC News that Pruitt had used his official position to lobby the company for a “business opportunity.”
“The subject of that phone call was an expression of interest in his wife becoming a Chick-Fil-A franchisee,” the company representative said.
ABC News notes:
The laundry list of accusations against Pruitt has been growing. Congressional committees have looked into costly flights including several first-class trips taken by the Administrator during his first year in office. Questions have also mounted about a sweetheart real estate deal Pruitt had for a Capitol Hill condo that is co-owned by the wife of a top lobbyist, who had business before the EPA. That lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, has since retired from his firm after the accusations came to light.
Pruitt also came under fire for authorizing huge raises for two members of his team. Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, longtime loyalists to Pruitt, both of whom received raises when Pruitt’s team used a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act to pay for the raises after they were first rejected by the White House. Hupp and Greenwalt resigned this week, the reasons for their departures is still unclear.
Earlier this week, Sen. Joni Ernst, a staunchly conservative Republican from Iowa, suggested Pruitt should resign.
“He is about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C. And, if the President wants to drain the swamp he needs to take a look at his own cabinet,” she said.
