The attacks on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt just aren’t letting up as one of the latest involves who should have paid for a broken door.
The door in question, according to ABC News, is in the $50-a-night condo he once rented from an energy lobbyist in Washington D.C. And the door has the attention of Minnesota Congresswoman Betty McCollum, a Democrat.
She lives in the same condo and also sits on the House subcommittee that oversees the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.
What has her stirred up is that the door was broken down last year by Pruitt’s protective detail because they could not reach him. They either kicked in the door or put their shoulders to it because they didn’t get an answer from Pruitt.
“I know that Congress appropriates money for the EPA to protect human health and the environment – not for repairs to the administrator’s residence,” McCollum wrote in a letter to the EPA this week demanding answers. The cost to repair the door was $2,460.
She was there when the door was bashed in during the March 29, 2017 incident.
“I heard this pounding and I thought somebody was working on a fence,” said McCollum. “The pounding just kept going and going.”
Pruitt’s security detail couldn’t get an answer after knocking on the door and Capitol Police were called to the scene. McCollum, who owns a condo downstairs couldn’t find a key to help police so Capitol Police broke down the door. Pruitt was inside taking a nap and reportedly hadn’t heard the commotion.
“If it was a private citizen and a 911 called happened, it would be the homeowner in the majority of cities that would be responsible,” McCollum said about the EPA’s payment to fix the door.
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told ABC News the agency “will respond to Congresswoman McCollum through the proper channel.”