President Donald Trump told reporters that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has done a fantastic job, but admitted he had concerns about mounting scandals.
“I’m not happy about certain things, but he’s done a fantastic job at EPA,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Friday morning.
Calls for Pruitt to step down have only been amplified in recent days, including among some conservatives. Fox News host Laura Ingraham and editors at National Review called for Pruitt to resign amid a flurry of ethics scandals.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe has asked Pruitt to meet on Monday to discuss the many accusations against him, from renting a room from the fie of a D.C. lobbyist, to using close aides for personal errands and flying first class. (RELATED: Trey Gowdy Wants Answers For ‘Differing Accounts’ On Scott Pruitt Allegations)
“I think something needs to happen to change that, and one of those alternatives is for him to leave that job,” Inhofe said on Ingraham’s radio show Wednesday.
However, most Republicans and conservative movement leaders still support Pruitt, seeing him as a key player in repealing Obama administration regulations. Should he resign, they argue, he could be replaced with an administrator less willing to take on entrenched EPA and environmental interests.
Pruitt’s currently under a number or investigations from Congress and federal investigators, including EPA’s Office of Inspector General. The embattled administrator has been accused of violating ethics laws and overspending on security.
Former EPA official Kevin Chmielewski is the source of most prominent accusations against Pruitt, though some of what the former Trump campaign staffer told Democratic lawmakers in April has been questioned by agency sources and media reports.
South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, a Republican who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has asked Chmieleski to appear before the committee to address conflicting accounts of claims made against his former boss.
“To examine these facts, and particularly to reconcile what has amounted to differing accounts, we must take your testimony,” Gowdy wrote in a letter to Chmielewski sent Thursday.
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