After having to retract its “scoop” in the wake of facts about the Trump administration’s handling of climate change reports, The New York Times is trying a different battle tactic.
The Gray Lady is saying that critics are accusing Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, of...carrying out his agenda in secret!
When career employees of the Environmental Protection Agency are summoned to a meeting with the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, at agency headquarters, they no longer can count on easy access to the floor where his office is, according to interviews with employees of the federal agency.Doors to the floor are now frequently locked, and employees have to have an escort to gain entrance.Some employees say they are also told to leave behind their cellphones when they meet with Mr. Pruitt, and are sometimes told not to take notes.Mr. Pruitt, according to the employees, who requested anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs, often makes important phone calls from other offices rather than use the phone in his office, and he is accompanied, even at E.P.A. headquarters, by armed guards, the first head of the agency to ever request round-the-clock security.
There is so much to fisk in the opening paragraphs, I hardly know where to begin:
1) Pruitt has been very clear about his agency’s agenda under President Trump. I encourage NYT reporters to check into Legal Insurrection for my regular updates about Pruitt and his plans. Just a few of the many examples of Pruitt’s very public agenda:
2) The Trump administration has been plagued by bureaucrats that have signed up for the #Resist army and feel righteously entitled to leak. That Pruitt, the obviously talented head of the nation’s pollution prevention agency, knows how to plug leaks before they become a problem indicates that he is great pick by the President.
3) Legal Insurrection readers will recall that our Secretary of Education was blocked from entering a school and has been forced to bring on a robust security detail. Given the hysteria of climate change activists, I suspect that Pruitt has received enough credible threats that 24-hour security has been assessed as necessary.
Because of the success that Pruitt has had in rescinding some of the more toxic policies of the Obama administration, it is no wonder that the American press is trying to find an effective approach to smear his efforts. It appears that accusing him of “secrecy” is the ticket to undermining his efforts!
For example, in reporting on a closed-door roundtable discussion on the federal government’s proposed revision of the Waters of the U.S. rule that Pruitt attended in Fargo on Wednesday, The Bismark Tribune reported:
[North Dakota Gov. Doug] Burgum said the roundtable was closed out of respect for the wishes of the EPA administration, though Burgum, along with Hoeven and Cramer, answered questions regarding what was discussed….Representatives of a group called Democratic Socialists of America shouted questions at Pruitt as he left NDSU, and they also peppered Cramer, Hoeven and Burgum with questions, though they went unanswered.A group spokesman, Zac Echola, said their intent was to underscore that “secret” meetings are undemocratic and that climate change is an emergency.
I will simply point out that the New York Times report is based on anonymous sources. The assertions in that article are already being refuted as #FakeNews:
Liz Bowman, a spokeswoman for the EPA, denied all the anonymous accounts by agency employees. “None of this is true,” she said. “It’s all rumors.””It’s very disappointing, yet not surprising, to learn that you would solicit leaks, and collude with union officials in an effort to distract from the work we are doing to implement the president’s agenda,” she told the Times.
However, what the report does prove is that Pruitt has been very effective in implementing the President’s agenda in the past 8 months. Hence, he is now being lobbed with #FakeNews bombs.
I sure hope my fisking of the NYT article doesn’t get me classified as a domestic terrorist threat!
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