Above Photo: BipHoo Company/Flickr
A woman publicly confronted Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt while he was eating lunch on Monday and urged him to resign, according to video posted on Facebook.
“EPA head Scott Pruitt was 3 tables away as I ate lunch with my child. I had to say something,” Kristin Mink posted on Facebook with an accompanying video of her encounter with Pruitt.
Mink, who is a schoolteacher according to her Facebook profile, lists off multiple scandals Pruitt has been ensnared in since becoming EPA chief, including the rental of a Capitol Hill condo owned by the wife of an influential lobbyist.
“We deserve to have somebody at the EPA who actually does protect our environment, someone who believes in climate change and takes it seriously for the benefit of all us, including our children,” Mink said.
“I would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out.”
Mink’s encounter with Pruitt, which had about 2,500 views just more than hour after being posted, is the latest public confrontation a Trump Cabinet official has faced in recent weeks.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia last month because of her role in the Trump administration. Days earlier, protestors separately confronted senior adviser Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsenas they dined at Mexican restaurants in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called for public confrontations of Trump officials to continue, which drew outrage from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. President Trump falsely claimed Waters was advocating harm against the president’s supporters, and Waters said she was forced to cancel two public events over the weekend because of a serious death threat.
The public confrontations ignited debates surrounding civility in politics and the correct way to protest policies and figures with which one doesn’t agree.
Video of a woman’s encounter with Pruitt also comes as he faces more scrutiny about potential ethics violations. The top ethics official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) called for an investigation into Pruitt over the weekend.
The New York Times reported that in a letter, the ethics offical, Kevin Minoli called for probes into his rental of the Capitol Hill condominium, taxpayer spending on travel and allegations that Pruitt had an aide help him with personal matters, including searching for housing during work hours.
Pruitt’s spending on security, nearly $3.5 million during his first year, has also come under intense scrutiny. A spokesman for the EPA contended that the amount spent was necessary because of the “unprecedented amount of death threats against him.”