Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) delivered a scathing assessment of Scott Pruitt’s tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, calling the former EPA chief “a disaster and an embarrassment from day one.”
{mosads}Curbelo’s comment came minutes after President Trump announced that he had accepted Pruitt’s resignation amid a flurry of scandals and controversies surrounding the former administrator’s spending and management at the EPA.
“Finally,” Curbelo tweeted, responding to Trump’s tweet announcing Pruitt’s resignation in which he president declared that Pruitt had “done an outstanding job” at the EPA.
“Actually he did a horrible job,” Curbelo continued. “He was a disaster and an embarrassment from day one, and the country is far better off without him.”
Curbelo, who faces a tough reelection campaign this year and has broken with Trump on a number of issues, was among Pruitt’s fiercest Republican critics and has been calling for the EPA chief’s resignation since April.
Trump said in a tweet on Thursday afternoon that he had accepted Pruitt’s resignation, but praised the former Oklahoma attorney general’s work at the EPA.
“Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this,” Trump wrote.
Pruitt has faced mounting scrutiny over his spending and management at the EPA. Among the controversies he faced was the revelation that he rented a Capitol Hill condo owned by the wife of an influential lobbyist for $50 for each night he stayed there — far below the market rate.
He also faced questions related to his first- and business-class travel, and his alleged use of EPA resources for personal matters. For example, one former aide alleged that Pruitt had asked her to help him search during work hours for housing.