Scott Pruitt is Trump’s scandal-haunted EPA administrator; yesterday, he was called before a Congressional hearing to account for himself and his lavish, tax-funded spending, as well as the paranoid culture of retaliatory firings and demotions at the EPA.
While Congressional Republicans periodically weighed in to call the climate-denying, fossil-fuel-funded career politician a “victim” of Washington politics, Democrats refused to stop asking Pruitt simple, frank questions about his tenure as a federal official, which Pruitt dodged, ducked and evaded.
For example, Rep. Ben Ray Luján [D-NM] had to ask Pruitt three times if he was the administrator of the EPA before Pruitt finally, grudgingly, admitted that he was.
Luján: “Today, you repeatedly blamed your chief of staff, your chief counsel, career officials, and others. Yes or no, are you the EPA administrator?”
Pruitt: “I said in my opening statement, Congressman. And I didn’t blame anyone.”
Luján: “Mr. administrator, it’s just a simple yes-or-no question, sir. Are you the EPA administrator?”
Pruitt: “I said in my opening statement, that I take responsibility, I’ve made changes historically, I’m making changes going forward. And I’ve simply not failed to take responsibility, I’ve simply recited the fact of what’s occurring.”
Luján: “It’s a simple question, Mr. Pruitt. Are you the EPA administrator?”
Pruitt: “Yes.”
Luján: “Do you run the EPA?”
Pruitt: “I do.”
Luján: “Yes or no: Are you responsible for the many many scandals plaguing the EPA?”
Pruitt: “I’ve responded to many of those questions today, with facts and information.”
Luján: “Are you able to answer in yes or no?”
Pruitt: “That’s not a yes-or-no answer, Congressman.”
Luján: “It’s pretty simple that it’s a yes-or-no answer.”
Scott Pruitt is even worse at yes-or-no questions than he is at following ethics rules [Alessandra Potenza/The Verge]
(Image: Gage Skidmore, CC-BY-SA)
