Pruit accusations ‘lies’
A senior Republican senator defends the EPA chief.
WASHINGTON — A senior Republican senator Wednesday mounted a strong public defense of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, calling ethics allegations against Pruitt “outrageous” and “lies.”
Sen. James Inhofe, from Pruitt’s home state of Oklahoma, spoke after summoning Pruitt to a one-on-one meeting this week to discuss more than a dozen allegations that Pruitt has misused his office to obtain perks and material benefits for himself and his family, including costly, taxpayerfunded premium-class trips and round-the-clock security.
“This is the type of outrageous lies you hear in Washington that people don’t have a chance to respond to,” Inhofe said at a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works confirmation hearing for two EPA nominees that quickly turned into a sparring session about Pruitt.
Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware listed some of the ethics allegations against Pruitt and said the Senate isn’t doing enough to examine them and hold him accountable.
“We are abdicating a fundamental responsibility of this body if we continue to do so,” he said.
Inhofe interrupted him to defend Pruitt.
“I know what you said is not correct,” Inhofe said.
Inhofe, who expressed concern last week about Pruitt’s ethics problems, told lawmakers he had spoken to Pruitt directly and now believes the news media is the source of much of Pruitt’s trouble.
He rejected criticism of Pruitt’s travel to Morocco and Italy, saying the trips were part of the EPA administrator’s job.
Inhofe did not speak to allegations that Pruitt used staffers and other office resources to try to line up work for his wife and to obtain hard-to-get tickets to the Rose Bowl and other sporting events.
But he did say Pruitt told him that he had had checked with EPA’s ethics officials about the sports tickets.
Pruitt, a Republican and the former attorney general of Oklahoma, had an EPA aide reach out to University of Oklahoma regent Renzi Stone, a public-relations consultant with clients in the oil industry, to get the Rose Bowl tickets, according to Stone and to former Pruitt EPA aide Millan Hupp.
President Donald Trump last week lauded Pruitt’s work at the EPA but said he was not “happy about certain things.”