A teacher confronted Environment Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and urged him to resign as he was eating lunch at Teaism Penn Quarter in D.C. on Monday.
“EPA head Scott Pruitt was 3 tables away as I ate lunch with my child,” Kristin Mink, whose Facebook profile says she is a teacher at Sidwell Friends School, wrote on Facebook to accompany video footage of the incident. “I had to say something. This man is directly and significantly harming my child’s — and every child’s — health and future with decisions to roll back environmental regulations for the benefit of big corporations, while he uses taxpayer money to fund a lavish lifestyle.”
“He’s corrupt, he’s a liar, he’s a climate change denier, and as a public servant, he should not be able to go out in public without hearing from the citizens he’s hurting,” she added.
The video clip depicts Mink introducing her toddler to Pruitt, saying that her son loves animals and “clean water.”
“I would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out,” Mink said.
According to Mink, Pruitt and others who were accompanying him left immediately after the exchange.
Pruitt has been the subject of controversy in recent months, coming under fire for his travel on first-class flights and the use of his EPA-funded security detail, among other things. He also faced backlash for dwelling at a Capitol Hill condo co-owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist for a rate of $50 a night.
“Administrator Pruitt always welcomes input from Americans, whether they agree or disagree with the decisions being made at EPA,” Lincoln Ferguson, a spokesperson for the EPA, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “This is evident by him listening to her comments and going on to thank her, which is not shown in the video. His leaving had nothing to do with the confrontation, he had simply finished his meal and needed to get back to EPA for a briefing.”
The exchange comes after Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., encouraged attendees at a rally in Los Angeles last month to confront members of the Trump administration in public, comments that fellow Democrats pushed back on.
“Already you have members of your Cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants. We have protesters taking up at their house who are saying, ‘No peace, no sleep. No peace, no sleep,’” Waters said.
“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” she added. “And you push back on them. Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”
Other members of the Trump administration, including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, have been confronted by protesters in recent weeks.
Watch the clip below:
