Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is losing a longtime friend and key ally because of recent scandals that have popped up in media reports, Bloomberg reported.
Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Pruitt’s home state, said the EPA head may need to resign following reports he enlisted an aide’s help in asking donors for a job for his wife. Inhofe also cited Pruitt’s living arrangements early in his tenure at the EPA, staying in an apartment owned by a top energy lobbyist.
“I think something needs to happen to change that, and one of those alternatives is for him to leave that job,” Inhofe told conservative commentator Laura Ingraham Wednesday on her radio show, according to Bloomberg.
“He is capable of doing the job, but he needs to do the job and quit worrying about all these other things,” Inhofe said. “I’m sending a communication over today that we’ve had enough of these things and you need to get down and do the job we’re elected to do.”
Ingraham joined Inhofe in expressing doubts about Pruitt. She took to Twitter Wednesday morning to call directly for Pruitt’s removal. (RELATED: ‘GOTTA GO’: Laura Ingraham Calls On Trump To Fire Scott Pruitt)
PRUITT BAD JUDGMENT HURTING @POTUS, GOTTA GO: Pruitt had aide, GOP donors help wife find job: report https://t.co/p7dhOK58Sh
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) June 13, 2018
Inhofe and Ingraham are part of a growing number of people calling for Pruitt’s resignation. The EPA administrator maintains staunch defenders on his side as well, including conservative pundits Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh, as well as President Donald Trump.
“He’s being singled out for doing something that has always been done because that’s how they view the best way to go get the guy and discredit him, rather than to try to frighten people about what he’s doing with the regulatory side of things,” Limbaugh said on his radio show in April.
Trump has praised Pruitt’s work at the EPA, saying Pruitt is “setting records.”
“Outside, he’s being attacked very viciously by the press,” Trump told reporters on June 8. “And I’m not saying that he’s blameless, but we’ll see what happens.”
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