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Woman who confronted Pruitt at restaurant: Conservatives want ‘civility’ because their stances are losing

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The schoolteacher who confronted former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt at a restaurant last week claimed Tuesday that conservatives are pleading for “civility” because they are “losing on the content of the arguments.”

“Some say it wasn’t ‘civil’ of me to approach Pruitt at lunch and that it’s a sign of dark times ahead for our political climate,” Kristin Mink wrote in an essay for Vox. “But these arguments are not genuine: The bogus ‘civility’ argument has arisen because conservatives are losing on the content of the arguments.”

{mosads}Her statement comes about a week after she shared a video on Facebook of her confronting Pruitt while he was eating lunch in Washington, D.C. She urged him to resign and listed several of the scandals Pruitt had been tied up in as EPA chief.

Just three days later, President Trump announced that he had accepted Pruitt’s resignation. 

“I only added a little extra gasoline to the dumpster fire of his scandal-ridden tenure, but I was proud to join the long-standing efforts of environmentalists, activists, investigative journalists, and whistleblowers across the country cranking the heat up to levels even this administration couldn’t endure,” Mink writes. 

Mink goes on to argue that public officials should expect to be confronted by citizens and argues that focusing on how an individual “speaks up is what a person does when they don’t have an adequate response to the concerns being voiced.”

She concludes by saying that putting pressure on the Trump administration is vital and that all citizens must do their part. 

Pruitt resigned Thursday after facing a series of scandals regarding his management, spending and ethics decisions as the head of the EPA. Among the scandals, Pruitt faced scrutiny from lawmakers for his rental of a Capitol Hill condominium, taxpayer spending on travel and allegations that he had an aide help him with personal matters.

Shortly after he resigned, Mink tweeted at Trump, asking him where he was eating lunch in an apparent joke that she’d achieved one resignation and might prompt another. 

“Hey @realDonaldTrump where are you going to lunch tomorrow?” she asked. 

Tags Donald Trump Scott Pruitt

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