Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt blamed the media for his many scandals during a Thursday hearing in front of the Senate Energy committee.
Pruitt has faced numerous ethical scandals during his tenure, including reports that his security team is costing taxpayers millions of dollars and that he stayed at a condo owned by a lobbyist who donated to his political campaigns.
Given a chance to respond to the many allegations, Pruitt said that the media is reporting “half truths” and has “twisted” stories in order to undermine President Trump’s EPA agenda.
Pruitt says the allegations leveled against him are “half truths or at best stories that have been so twisted they do not resemble reality.”
— Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC) April 26, 2018
“Those have been a distraction to our agenda, and that troubles me,” Pruitt said of the scandals. “Those who have attacked the EPA are doing so because they want to attack and derail … the administration’s priorities. I’m simply not going to let that happen.”