'I don't know how you survive this one' Chris Christie says of revelation that EPA chief Scott Pruitt got sweetheart apartment deal from wife of energy lobbyist

  • Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speculated that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt may not survive his most recent scandal 
  • ABC News reported this week that Pruitt had been spending $50 a night for a D.C. apartment that was co-owned by the wife of an energy lobbyist 
  • Pruitt's spokesman said the rent was so low because the EPA chief was only using a single bedroom in the Capitol Hill unit 
  • But ABC later found that Pruitt's daughter had occupied a second building in the apartment when interning at the White House last summer 
  • Christie, who got fired from running President Trump's transition team, suggested hasty vetting has contributed to problems like this 
  • 'If Mr. Pruitt's going to go, it's because he should have never been there in the first place,' the former governor said 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speculated that Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt may be the next cabinet official pushed out of the Trump administration.

'Listen, I don't know how you survive this one,' Christie said on ABC's This Week. 

On Thursday, ABC News reported on a sweetheart rental deal in Washington Pruitt was getting for an apartment co-owned by an energy lobbyist's wife.

Observers including former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (pictured) speculated Pruitt would be the next cabinet official pushed out of the Trump administration 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who at one point was in charge of President Trump's transition, speculated that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt may not be able to survive a controversy surrounding a sweetheart apartment deal 

The Environmental Protection Agency considered flying its scandal-plagued chief Scott Pruitt around on a private jet 

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt rented a D.C. apartment for $50 a night, versus the $5,000 a month comparable units are being rented out for, according to ABC News. The apartment belongs to the wife of an energy lobbyist 

Pruitt is embroiled in several ethics probes including staying in an apartment (pictured) near Capitol Hill owned by energy lobbyists for just $50 a night 

A spokesman for Scott Pruitt said the EPA head was only renting out one bedroom in the unit, though ABC News found that Pruitt's daughter had also lived in the condo during her White House internship 

Pruitt was only paying $50 a night to stay in the apartment, in a neighborhood adjacent to the U.S. Capitol complex where comparable rentals were on the market for $5,000 a month. 

Pruitt paid $6,100 to use the property for more than six months, giving money to a limited liability corporation for the condo co-owned by Vicki Hart. 

Hart's husband J. Steven Hart is the chairman of Williams & Jensen, a top D.C. lobbying firm. 

A description of his duties on the firm's website lists 'energy' as one of his issue areas.   

A spokesperson for Pruitt initially said the EPA administrator was only renting out one bedroom in the apartment, not the full unit. 

'While transitioning in Washington, Administrator Pruitt signed a lease to rent a bedroom in a condo and he moved out at the end of July,' spokesman Jahan Wilcox said. 

'As EPA career ethics officials stated in a memo, Administrator Pruitt’s housing arrangement for both himself and family was not a gift and the lease was consistent with federal ethics regulations,' Wilcox added in a second statement on Friday.

On Saturday, ABC News reported that Pruitt's daughter McKenna used a second bedroom in the unit during a stint in Washington for a White House internship. 

A woman who identified herself as McKenna's mother told ABC on the phone that her daughter lived in Oklahoma last year. 

When asked where she resided during her White House internship, the woman told ABC, 'She has nothing to do with my husband's administration.' 

She then hung up.  

Vicki Hart told the network that 'the rental agreement was with Scott Pruitt.' 

'If other people were using the bedroom or the living quarters, I was never told, and I never gave him permission to do that,' Hart said. 

A spokesman for her husband told ABC that Steven Hart has not lobbied the EPA or the Department of Energy since President Trump's swearing-in.  

 This latest controversy for Pruitt comes after he's contributed to negative headlines about the administration for his overly costly travel – including his use of first-class seats. 

In August, the EPA's inspector general announced that it was probing Pruitt's travel practices. 

The internal watchdog has twice, now, expanded the scope of its investigation. 

Christie, who originally ran President Trump's transition team, though got fired from the position just days after the president won the election, pointed to the Pruitt example of Trump being ill-served by the ex-New Jersey governor's replacements.

'If he has to go, it's because he never should have been there in the first place,' Christie said of Pruitt.   

Christie called attention to a recent Washington Post story about the Presidential Personnel Office, which is tasked with recruiting and vetting political appointees. 

While Christie called attention to the importance of this office during his time at the transition, much of his work was thrown out, with the eventual leader of the PPO forced to hire a team basically from scratch. 

That team is comprised mostly of 20-somethings who have given the office a reputation for being a 'social hub,' where other administration officials come to 'vape' – smoke electronic cigarettes – and chug Smirnoff Ice at happy hours.  

'The Washington Post story this week on the Presidential Personnel Office tells you everything you need to know,' Christie said. '[Trump] was ill served right from the beginning by a group of people who threw all the transition work out – 35 8-inch binders of vetting of over 350 people, that were consistent with his views, that they got rid of, literally threw in the garbage two or three days after the election, started over.' 

Christie explained that when Trump said he was 'very close' to getting the cabinet he wanted it was because he's finally getting 'people around him consistent with what he thinks and are personality wise consistent with who he is.' 

'This was a brutally unprofessional transition, this was a transition that didn’t vet people for this type of judgement issues, which I think could have been seen very easily in a lot of these people, and you cannot do this with, you know – Rick Dearborn and Steve Bannon on the back of an envelope in 73 days,' Christie said referencing Trump's former deputy chief of staff and his ex-chief strategist.  

 'And the president's been ill-served by this, and if Mr. Pruitt's going to go, it's because he should have never been there in the first place,' Christie concluded. 

Advertisement

Christie suggests Pruitt may not 'survive' D.C. apartment controversy

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.