Is Pruitt the Most Corrupt Cabinet- Level Official?
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. And we are back now with our political panel, continuing the conversation. Teeing off with Scott Pruitt, the embattled EPA administrator, you might have heard a scandal or two related to him. But we've got a couple of new ones. Former aide says that he directed her to help his wife land a $200,000 job, or a six-figure job, and then he kept a secret calendar to keep some meetings under wraps, including a meeting with Cardinal Pell, who's accused of sexual abuse, a coal CEO. Might be interesting to know if the EPA administrator is meeting with the coal CEO. Why does the president stick with Scott Pruitt?</s>POWERS: I'd love to know. I mean, the only, the thing -- we can go through all of these various scandals, all the way back to, remember the trip to Morocco, which costs $100,000 for four days with eight staffers. It makes no sense why he needs to do that. You know, all through all the other scandals and only thing to think of is this is the swampiest swamp creature that you have ever seen, right? This is exactly what Donald Trump said he was going to get rid of. And it's just an endless -- maybe, Amanda, you can help us understand this. It's really astonishing, like, does he have something on Donald Trump?</s>SCIUTTO: Or just doing what Donald Trump wants? Environmental --</s>POWERS: He can find another person to do that.</s>CARPENTER: Scott Pruitt is a walking, talking ethics violation. But if you talk to Republicans who are sticking by him, they just say, he's getting the job done, which is crazy to me. It's like there's no one else you can pick? You can pick a random staffer from Jim Inhofe's office and you get the same result.</s>POWERS: Right.</s>CARPENTER: So, I would bet the Democrats take the House he resigns.</s>SCIUTTO: Right.</s>CARPENTER: Because guess what happens then? Hearings, hearings, hearings.</s>SCIUTTO: Does the president dig in sometimes on staffers like this just for the sake of digging?</s>CILLIZZA: So, I think that's one theory and that he sees in Pruitt a kindred spirit of some sort.</s>CARPENTER: A fighter.</s>CILLIZZA: He believes Pruitt to be sort of being bashed unfairly. I also as an avid "Simpsons" watcher, just stick with me.</s>CILLIZZA: I think there's a Montgomery Burns element to this. Montgomery Burns, the old tycoon, goes to the doctor. And the doctors comes -- he has a physical. The doctor says, you're surprisingly healthy, Mr. Burns. He'd say, oh, that's great. And he says, well, can I go? He says, what it is is you have every disease known to man but they're all blocking one another from getting out, so you're weirdly healthy. I don't know if there's so much on Scott Pruitt that now at this point, it's all sort of gets balled up into -- believe that you could be -- I believe this. People including Trump don't believe that you could do this many things that are at best ethically questionable.</s>SCIUTTO: Symone? Symone?</s>SANDERS: He has actually done them.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes.</s>SANDERS: Documented, on the record. And we still don't have even, so much as a hearing from the Republicans in Congress who are, in fact, in control --</s>SCIUTTO: Yes, oversight committee, please?</s>SANDERS: Yes, where's the oversight? So, I also think for folks that are upset about the abuses and the insider things that are happening in Washington, they need to hold these Republicans accountable in 2018 at the midterms because they have yet to do anything and --</s>SANDERS: The last thing to know, like, the young person that he made put the hotel on the card, fire me, OK? As a former young staffer, I don't play those games.</s>CILLIZZA: The idea that the means justify the ends is a dangerous road to go down. Well, he's doing the job, so therefore however you get from point A to point B is meaningless.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, I mean, it's not the first time that's happened in Washington.</s>CILLIZZA: Donald Trump operates like that. If the end is what he wants, it doesn't matter how he got to the end. And I would argue it does matter, particularly if you're the head of a political party.</s>SCIUTTO: Standards matter, norms matter. Those rules are in place for a reason. Thanks very much, my panel. Trapped a mile deep into a cave, why a group of children, some who have never swam at all may need to learn how to scuba dive just to survive. Plus, President Trump issues a new threat to our most critical military allies. Pay up or else.