EPA administrator and comically corrupt person Scott Pruitt pointedly did not deny on Wednesday that he attempted to use his federal office to help convince the anti-gay bigots who run Chick-fil-A to let his wife open a franchise of her own. Instead, he talked a lot about how great Chick-fil-A is. Yum!
Pruitt spoke with Nexstar reporter Jessica Smith, who asked him about the fast allegations ahead of his appearance with President Trump at FEMA headquarters.
This, verbatim, was his answer:
With great change comes, you know, I think, opposition. I mean, there’s significant changes happening across, not only the EPA, but across this administration, and it’s needed. Uh, and, uh, look my wife is, is an entrepreneur herself. Uh, I love, she loves, we love, we, uh... Chick-fil-A is a, uh, a franchise of faith and it’s one of the best in the country. And so, uh, that’s something we were very excited about. So, and we need more of them in Tulsa and we need more of them across the country. So anyway, it’s, uh, it’s an exciting time.
Pruitt’s wife, Marilyn, never finished her Chick-fil-A franchise application, the company explained to CNN. Sydney Hupp, the EPA scheduler who helped arrange Pruitt’s call with Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, left the agency last year.
Interestingly, Hupp’s sister Millan—also one of Pruitt’s top aides—resigned on Wednesday. Her departure comes days after the Washington Post reported on her testimony to the House Oversight Committee, in which she claimed she was regularly asked to perform personal tasks for her boss, like buying used Trump hotel mattresses.
It sure is an exciting time to be an unrepentantly crooked stooge.