White House Official Concedes Pruitt Could Do a ‘Better Job’ on Use of Taxpayer Money
The White House apparently has no plans to dump Scott Pruitt just yet. Despite all the public scrutiny into Pruitt’s spending of taxpayer money, President Trump is standing by him and White House legislative director Marc Short
Short sat down with CBS News’ Major Garrett on The Takeout podcast, and Garreet confronted him about the White House’s continued support of Pruitt despite the ethics questions and multiple investigations.
“So many ethical questions have been raised about him,” Garrett said, “and some Republicans in the House have called for his resignation. What is he doing that that makes him so impervious to this external criticism and so permanent in the eyes of the president?”
Pruitt said that Pruitt has “delivered on our agenda and the promises we made,” adding, “he’s always going to be a target no matter what.”
However, he did say that because of Trump’s “drain the swamp” pledge, “we have to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” and when Garrett asked if Pruitt could do a “better job,” Short said, “Yeah. I think he would acknowledge that.”
Garrett pressed him on why exactly Pruitt is staying on when other Cabinet officials who came under similar scrutiny were dumped, asking “Is it the delivery on the agenda part that keeps him safe?”
“It’s factual to say that he has delivered on the agenda, and that is important,” Short responded. “But I don’t think that you can say that simply delivering on the agenda excuses misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
The full Takeout podcast episode will be released this Friday morning.
[image via screengrab]
— —
