Rep. Ted Lieu Calls on Trump to Remove EPA Chief: ‘You Should Fire Him’

Congressman Ted Lieu (D—CA) called on President Donald Trump to fire his embattled chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt. And knowing his audience, the California Democrat did it in a way the president might actually take note of: on Twitter, of course.

“Dear @realDonaldTrump: Republicans who don’t believe in climate change & want to dismantle environmental protections are a dime a dozen,” Rep. Lieu tweeted on Saturday. “You don’t need @EPAScottPruitt, who spent taxpayer dollars on 1st class travel, violated ethics laws & is deeply paranoid. You should fire him.”

Dear @realDonaldTrump: Republicans who don't believe in climate change & want to dismantle environmental protections are a dime a dozen. You don't need @EPAScottPruitt, who spent taxpayer dollars on 1st class travel, violated ethics laws & is deeply paranoid. You should fire him. https://t.co/iS6JdWfmR2

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 31, 2018

The push for Pruitt’s ousting arrives amid new reports detailing the embattled chief’s unprecedented expenditures. He’s brought a government-funded security detail with him virtually everywhere, including a family vacation to Disney, despite no other EPA administrator doing the same in modern American history. Pruitt also has questions arising over his finances in Washington: he paid just $50 a night to live in a ritzy apartment on Capitol Hill, owned in part by a top energy lobbyist’s wife, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Via the New York Times:

Her husband, J. Steven Hart, is the chairman of a Washington lobbying firm, Williams & Jensen, with several energy clients including OGE Energy Corporation, Cheniere Energy and Colonial Pipeline.

According to lobbying disclosure records, Mr. Hart’s firm reported lobbying the E.P.A. on behalf of OGE Energy, an energy company based in Oklahoma, on greenhouse gas regulations and other rules affecting electric utilities. The forms were previously reported by E&E News.

Other Democrats derided Pruitt’s use of taxpayer funds as inappropriate, including Rep. John Sarbanes (D—MD), who said in a statement, “From the very beginning, Scott Pruitt has acted as if the E.P.A. is his own personal fiefdom.”

Rep. Lieu has been one of the most vocal critics of the Trump administration in Congress from the very start, calling out top level aides by name on Twitter and calling for the firing of Senior Advisers Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The congressman told Mediaite earlier in March that the public will need to join in demanding the removal of Cabinet appointees and top-level officials who have committed wrongdoings while in office.

“I do think continual pressure on this issue is important,” he said. “I believe in a quote from President Abe Lincoln: public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.”

[image via screengrab]

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