Conservatives, led by top talker Rush Limbaugh and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, went on offense Thursday for embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, charging that he is being targeted by liberals because he is pulling back the overreach of Obama-era environmental rules.
“You know there’s an old saying,” said Limbaugh, opening his daily three hour show. “When you’re taking a lot of flak, you must be over the target. Well, I think Scott Pruitt is over the target,” he said.
This is compelling. Why do Obama and his media cronies want so badly to drive @EPAScottPruitt out of office? @realDonaldTrump is too cagey to be duped and bullied by the Obama groupies. https://t.co/USHqDUDECH
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 5, 2018
“He’s basically just taking a knife and whacking things from the EPA that were implemented during the eight years of Obama and he has become, outside of Trump, the single biggest target of the Left,” added Limbaugh.
Cruz, in a tweet, called Pruitt’s critics “Obama groupies.”
Pruitt has come under fire for his travel and housing arrangements, and some reports have suggested that President Trump is not happy with the controversy. Other reports, though, said that Trump has called Pruitt to offer support.
In a Secrets interview this week, Pruitt said that he is the target of the Left and that critics are seizing on his travel and lease to rent a room temporarily in a lobbyist-friend’s house.
Under President Obama, the @EPA was a politically charged agency that stifled the economy. @EPAScottPruitt‘s reforms are helping workers and consumers! https://t.co/byn1Yu6ble #TeaParty
— Jenny Beth Martin (@jennybethm) April 3, 2018
“There are people that have long in this town done business a different way and this agency has been the poster child of it. And so do I think that because we are leading on this agenda that there are some who want to keep that from happening? Absolutely. And do I think that they will resort to anything to achieve that? Yes,” he told us.
“It’s toxic here in that regard,” said Pruitt, one of a handful of Trump’s agency heads who is scoring wins on his pro-jobs, anti-regulatory campaign.
Limbaugh’s support was full-throated. He said that the liberal “deep state” was leading the attack.
.@EPAScottPruitt is actively working to balance environmental protection with job growth and economic recovery.
— Steve Forbes (@SteveForbesCEO) April 3, 2018
“Scott Pruitt is himself unraveling a whole lot of regulations that Obama’s EPA implemented,” said the top conservative radio host.
Other conservatives, notably Tea Party Patriots head Jenny Beth Martin, and several major groups, including Heritage Action, the Club for Growth, and Americans for Prosperity have also backed Pruitt this week, especially after he stalled the Obama plan to dramatically raise car gas mileage.
