only to his to democrats, but even to his allies. you believe you and your colleagues across the aisle are still open to something. we want to make sure we protect those kids. representative meeks, appreciate your time. this just in to cnn, speculation mounts about another administration exit, epa s scott pruitt. abby phillip is standing by. what are you learning? reporter: good morning, erica. the question going into this day was what would happen with scott pruitt, will he survive? now we heard from a senior administration official who says that the president called scott pruitt last night to offer him words of encouragement. the president said to pruitt according to the source keep your head up, keep fighting. we ve got your back. now, this message was reiterated this morning, tuesday morning by chief of staff john kelly, a clear signal being sent to pruitt at least that for the time being the white house has not totally abandoned them.
tillerson while he was on his trip and told him to hurry back to washington. ignoring those around him, he wants more stability in the white house, and he also makes decisions like what s happening with pruitt more perplexing to aides that he can t sustain it. but the president likes him, and it s anyone s guess what he s going to do. anyone s guess, i think, is the key phrase. so the president called scott pruitt last night and said, hang in there, we ve got your back. if you re a senior official in the white house, is that cement dry, or do you think, i m not going to trust that? what s the shelf life, i guess? i guess we have to wait and see, but it s true the president likes what pruitt is doing at epa. he thinks he s executing his mission there and he likes pruitt personally. so at the moment, at this moment in time, it appears that pruitt is all right. we ve seen this with other advisers, too. secretary zinke has had
moments ago, cnn learned that president trump called scott pruitt last night to deliver this message. keep fighting. we got your back. joining me now, molly ball, cnn political analyst and patty solis doyle and scott jennings. good to have all of you with us. as kaitlan collins just pointed out, we hear the message from the president, i got your back to scott pruitt that the president is happy with some of what he s seeing at the epa. molly that being said, we know how quickly things can change in the white house. what is the sense around washington in terms of the president s messages being put out there and what is really happening behind the scenes for scott pruitt? the sense in washington is that everything depends on trump s whim and trump s whim can change, can turn on a dime. we have seen cabinet officials forced out over these types of scandals of whatever caliber you consider them. tom price, david shulkin, and then we have seen some who are staying on, ben carson is still