This week about promoting the embattled epa chief scott pruitt to replace Jeff Sessions as attorney general of the United States of america. Late today aboard air force i, the president said pruitt is fantastic. I think that scott has done a fantastic job. I think hes a fantastic person. I just left,nd i just left coal and Energy Country and they love scott pruitt. At least five epa officials have been sidelined after raising serious concerns with pruitt about his spending and management according to the New York Times. That includes one of the first employees of the Trump Campaign itself. According the times, he objected to a proposal for a 100,000 a month private plane charter membership for pruitt. He also objected to a proposal to spend 70,000 for two desks in pruitts Priority Office suite, yes, two desks for 70,000 u. S. Dollars. He raised concerns about spending with pruitt directly and taking some of his concerns to the White House Personnel Office itself. What was the price for that . Hes currently on administrative leave without pay. To be clear, the list of inappropriate spending is getting longer and the price tags bigger and the president is talking about promoting pruitt to replace sessions. President trump is standing by his man, even after this performance. President trump said he would drain the swamp. Is draining the swamp renting an apartment from the wife of a washington lobbyist . I dont think that thats even remotely fair to ask that question. Why did you go around the president and white house to give pay raises to two staffers. I did not. My staff did and i found out about that yesterday and i did it. Who did it . A career person or political person . I dont know. You run the agency. You dont know who did it . I found out about this yesterday. Pruitts answers speak for themselves, as do these reports of his egregious behavior, requesting a 24hour security detail, security that extended to a Family Vacation to disn disneyland and the rose bowl, rocking in ing up 130,000 in and a 50 a night rate for a room and bypassing the white house to give large pay raises to two aides and it doesnt stop there. Were learning tonight about a request that lights and sirens be used to get pruitt around town because hes often running late. And yet, let listen to President Trump again. Were going to drain the swamp of corruption in washington, d. C. Were going to drain the swamp of corruption in washington, d. C. And stop government officials from trading favors at your expense. It is time to drain the swamp and thats what were doing in washington dncht c. Well see if he keeps his word when it comes to scott pruitt, the man tonight he said was fantastic. Fantastic, apparently, to talk about promoting this week to replace Jeff Sessions as tor attorney general, who has accused himself from the russia investigation. Jeff, the president is forced to address this report of promoting pruitt to attorney general. Reporter erin, he was. He quickly pushed back saying he has no plans to do that. He believes scott pruitt is doing just fine where he is. But interesting we have seen the president say similar things for other cabinet secretaries, that theres no change planned and we know of course theres a long list of cabinet secretaries, senior advisers who are no longer here. I can tell you tonight based on a days worth of reporting, erin, that the president was not pleased at all by that fox news interview. He called it an interesting interview. We know he was watching it just off the oval office. That was supposed to clean things up. It did not clean things up. But this is what is different about scott pruitt, erin. There are a variety of conservative supporters and forces who are urging the white house and the president to leave scott pruitt in place. Not because of the ethics scandals, they dont care about that nearly as much as the policies that he is putting in place. Hes rolling back the obama era Administration Regulations bit by bit here. Its one reason ted cruz, rand paul and other senators have come out in support of him. They like la hewhat hes doing substantive matter. Thats different than others who have been shoved aside because of overspending. The president has to decide if he doesnt like the bad headlines more than he likes the conservative support for him. Thats why tonight we do believe he is on probably more solid ground than he was earlier in the week, but again, this is the president s choice day by day. Hell decide this on a wlhim. And its difficult to confirm a new epa administrator. They think this will take months to do. Some want to leave scott pruitt just where he is. And now everyone knows the president when it comes to this, hell get perhaps a lot more pushback than he did the first time around. Coming up, the vice Ranking Member of the house judiciary committee, congressman, thank you for your time tonight. Youre one of the first to call for pruitts resignation. That is not happening at this moment and, in fact, the president is not pressuring him to resign. He is calling him fantastic person, fantastic job tonight on air force i and were reporting talked about promoting him to attorney general this week, as all of this avalanche of ethical questions was being raised. Your reaction. Donald trump has a staff infection and scott pruitt is the poster boy for the most ethically corrupt and compromised administration of our lifetimes. Its remarkable that hes still in office, even with what we know just now and that the president is standing by him. The guy has the real estate deal of the century in d. C. Paying 50 a night to the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist, whose firm has multiple clients with millions of dollars worth of business before the epa, including exxon mobil and Cheniere Energy and Stanley Black decker. He appointed to take over the Super Fund Program a guy who had loaned him hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a house and to buy an interest in a baseball team. The guy has absolutely no history at all in Environmental Protection and hes head of the countrys Super Fund Program cleanup all because of this personal relationship and hes making i think 160,000 or 170,000 a year and hes been banned from doing banking in america by the fdic because of various transgressions. So this is just an ethical sewer. The only swamp in the country or wetland the epa chief has been protecting is the ethical swamp in washington. Its just amazing to us that this guy is still in office. Dozens of members of congress, including several republicans, have calledresignation. Others, including rand paul, have come strenuously to his defense. Were learning several epa officials have been sidelined and suspended for raising concerns about pruitts spending. The New York Times is reporting a proposal for 70,000 for two desks in his office suite. The New York Times says some of these concerns were brought directly to the White House Personnel Office. So all of this has happened in the past. Weve seen people demoted, suspended without pay, reassigned to less prestigious roles and this has been happening over months. Before any of this broke in the media. Your reaction . This is the pattern. Theyre appointing foxes to supervise the hen houses and predictably there are conscientious Public Services but certainly the Civil Servants who are blowing the whistle and then they retaliate against the Government Employees who complain about stuff, like pruitt spending more than 180,000 on travel, foreign travel, first class air tickets all over the country. Hes the first epa chief in memory who travels with a complete security detail, which is just absolutely unprecedented whats going on here. So, you know, the top democrat on the oversight committee, of which youre also a member, is calling for a hearing with pruitt and his top aides next week. Do you think pruitt will still be there next week or will the president fire him . Heres what were hearing are that they understand that hes at the center of this Corruption Scandal now and its engulfing him and the rest of the cabinet and the president himself who is the emoluments king. But hes doing precisely what hes been sent to do, which is to turn over epa regulation basically to the polluters. And theyre dismantling the regulation to protect clean water and clean air in the country. If youre willing to give the store away, theyll stand by you no matter how much youre spending on foreign travel or fancy furniture or how much youre bringing in all of your buddies and Business Partners to hold high public offices. Congressman, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. And now patrick healy. This report from you tonight is pretty stunning. I hope everybody reads it. Even as all of this was breaking, talking about promoting pruitt to take over sessions, whom he always criticizes to recusing from the russia investigation. He said when hes doing a fantastic job, he said just came from coal and oil company and they love him. Is it worth it for him to stand by his man . He needs he is fox base and the fox base was going hard at pruitt and the base hits waste, fraud and abuse. 70,000 for two desks . Its a stunning number. This is what theyre up again. Youre going to think sort of the Republican Base getting uncomfortable with this guy, but heres the thing, scott pruitt has been from the republicans point of view one of the most effective members of Donald Trumps cabinet for big business, for energy, for coal in a lot of those red states he cares about and including places look West Virginia where they got a Competitive Senate seat held by a democrat now, they really like scott pruitt. They like what hes done with deregulation on the epa. So its an interesting one because normally its friday and tomorrows friday, the weekend, the president is going to be in d. C. Usually youd see the big shakeup come but this is a tough one. If 79,000 for a desk is a problem and 31,000 for a table and 100,000 for a door. So as goes pruitt and zinke and carson. And john kelly is saying get rid of him and the president is completely disregarding his chief of staff. That relationship changed at least a few weeks ago where donald trump has wanted for a long time to be free to make the decisions, especially on administration, that he wants to make. He knows that the narrative and the media that john kelly was brought in to bring the president to heel. Youve seen the succession of people that donald trump has moved out. He moved out mcmaster, he moved out Rex Tillerson at the state department. Scott pruitt has a constituency, hes popular with republicans. Mcmaster was never like a base guy. This is going to be trickier for trump. But john kelly, you know, hes sticking to the same message but if the president wants him to stay, pruitt may be hanging on. Thank you very much. And next, donald trump unhinged today talking about conspiracy theories and mexican rapists. Women are raped at levels that nobodys ever seen before. Plus the president breaking his silence today on Stormy Daniels. For the first time opening his mouth directly about the payment. 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That would have been a little boring. Little boring. In many places like california, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. They like to say thats a Conspiracy Theory. Not a Conspiracy Theory, folks. Millions and millions of people. It is false. Lets just be clear. Identity ooutfront now, rob, e had a speech. He was ready to talk about something substantive and important, tax reform and his view of that was which was more exciting. It was definitely more exciting but now here we are talking about millions of people voting many times, which i just want to make sure everyone understands. Republican after republican secretary of state in this country has said it is false, that the Voter Fraud Commission set up by this president was disbanded because this is false and yet here we were today. You know what i think what he does, im not making excuses and im no psychologist but i think theres a kernel of truth or its a couple of steps ahead meaning i dont think there were two Million People who voted illegally. But i do think because i was in the system, i was a county executive, i was involved in elections, i could see how easy it is to commit fraud. All you have to do in new york especially, fill out a form, you send it in, you dont show i. D. And it could happen. He brings up california. California had 948 cases of inspected fraud. 89 of them were seinvestigated. Of those 89, 56 were alleged double votes. Say 60 of the total, im going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Im going to say about 500. And thats giving him the benefit of the doubt. He said millions and millions. And thats wrong. I think it was a giant gesture and one of respect to john kelly and his staff. Ive got this piece of paper, heres what i think about it, this is boring. Hes going to the crowd. Hes playing to the crowd but its also a gesture to his staff, you cant control me. Week after week we talk to our republicans friends and they say i want to talk about tax reform, i want to talk about the economy. Its not erin or i who keep republicans from talking about that is correct its donald trump himself. Heres the thing. We have Steven Warren and robert reich coming on. The president decide he wants another hundred billion in china tariffs. Thats a game of choker. He puts 50 billion in and china goes 50 and he goes up to 100. Congressional republican secretaries of state have said it is false, regardless if there are individual cases of fraud. He went to remind people that some of the people coming into the country are good people but a lot of them are rapists from mexico. He brought that up today instead of reading the prepared remarks. Let me play it. Remember my opening remarks at trump tower. I used the word rape. And yesterday it came out where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobodys ever seen before. Okay. Very off topic for today but they are defending this. Sarah sanders is saying its a well established fact that women and children are brutally victimized on the journey north. And they think its not accurately reported and it could be worse. Even though this is off topic today and he did not to create a word echo is he right about raising this issue . Hes right to raise this issue, erin, if he raised it in order to do something about it. This is sad because it is an issue where republicans and democrats do often get together. The issue of sex trafficking generally is horrible and specifically crossing the border, it is a real issue but what is he proposing to do about it . What did he say beside exciting the crowd and getting to call mexicans rapists again. Hes been saying it for the whole campaign and since hes been in. The border wall to him is important for security reasons but the whole immigration process to keep out rapists . To keep out bad people coming in. If you see a whole bunch of people walking down your block and they come to your door, are you going to answer it or look through the peephole or ask who it is . Thats whats happening in our country. Were kind of just letting them walk on our property and walk in. New york its not whats happening in our country. Weve upped Border Security, president obama upped Border Security. You cant have 12 million weve got more people leaving than coming in across that border now. Since he came in because hes talking about immigration. It started under president obama. Not with these kind of numbers. It sta