i think that scott has done a fantastic job. i think he s a fantastic person. there are still questions, of course, surrounding scott pruitt and his status with the president. we know as recently as earlier this week, the president, despite the series of negative headlines that scott pruitt has been facing, was discussing privately with aides the possibility of still replacing jeff sessions, his attorney general, with scott pruitt. this is something he s considered for a while and clearly still in the president s mind, despite these negative headlines. and if it is all of that, the president speaking publicly about the stormy daniels scandal for first time. there is concern about possible legal implications. we heard from the president for the first time yesterday, and now stormy daniels attorney michael avenatti is saying he has plans to refile this motion to depose the president of the united states. let s listen in to what the president had to say and what michael avenatti
that if scott pruitt had heeded a lot of warnings, a lot of the negative headlines we have seen over the last several months with regard to some of the spending and the travel could have been avoided, but instead, these officials were iced out. they involved both career officials and political appointees. one of the political appointees is a long time trump campaign aide. he was one of the first hires on the trump campaign, senior advance official during the campaign. he has a close relationship, even, with the president. so that is notable as far as the criticism that scott pruitt has faced. despite all of that, you know, this is, first of all, not the latest just the latest incident involving scott pruitt. also the resume that he rented for $50 a night, ethics issues around that given that he was renting it from a lobbyist couple. but despite the issues, president trump so far sticking behind his epa administrator scott pruitt, this was him yesterday aboard air force one.
this economy has been essentially on a tear for quite a while and doesn t seem the fundamentals are still in place for growth. i think everyone here is nervous about the x factor. that x factor now seems to be the administration. christina richard, appreciate it. thank you. president trump says his epa chief is doing a fantastic job. just as secretary pruitt faces growing claims of ethics violations. so could he be the next person to lose his job?
television, by all of these headlines, all of the stories mounting about the questions, about scott pruitt. who is it around the president that has his ear or who will be put on television to telegraph that message to him that perhaps it is time to take a second look at his conduct. i don t think he ll listen to anybody. i think when donald trump watches ed henry interview scott pruitt and determines that scott pruitt isn t up for the job. it is when donald trump gets jealous of the attention that scott pruitt is getting, or the fact that scott pruitt has carried himself in such a way to act as if he s the president, as if he s the big deal. i think that is the thing. look, donald trump is more than happy to create scandals and controversies that other people have to fix for him. what he s not willing to do is to lose political capital, defending somebody else, and their scandals and controversies. that s why i think that pruitt is very on very thin ice,
media interviews either, against what they said. the white house told them, you know, you may not want to keep doing interviews and he had a pretty disastrous interview on fox news the other day, which i m sure didn t make the president happy. as we were learning after that interview, he was told not to do the interview. the fact he responded to a question with is that a fair question when this is something that we know the white house is already looking into, i mean, it begs the question, is there a tone deafness issue, not just in the oval office, but in scott pruitt s office as well. i ll jump on that real quick, not only that, but the pay raise issue, giving these bonuses to employees, which was rejected by the office of presidential personnel, and then his other staffers found a work around through the safe water drinking act, to give these employees bonuses, that s another aspect that scott pruitt has not been very forth coming on. the answers he gave fox news and reporti