Trump Meets With Pruitt as Calls Grow for the EPA Chief to Step Down
BURNETT: Tonight, a senior White House official confirming to CNN that President Trump met with his embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt today. This as calls grow for the president to fire Pruitt. But Trump is standing firm, defending Pruitt, tweeting, quote, EPA chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is totally under siege. Well, Pruitt is under siege thanks to controversy after controversy after controversy. Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT the White House. And, Jeff, even the White House chief of staff wants Pruitt gone. That's John Kelly. Will that make the president change his mind?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erin, it's unlikely that the chief of staff's viewpoint here will away on the president. The reality here is John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, does not like these headlines. The substance of the matter, the overspending, the entitlement in that department simply is not something that follows in line with what he told cabinet secretaries several weeks ago. They had a sit-down with all cabinet secretaries, and to stay out of the news on this. Scott Pruitt has not done that. But, Erin, the difference here is this -- there is a chorus of conservative leaders, business leaders, Trump donors more importantly, who are telling the president to stick with Scott Pruitt. I am told that Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma oil and gas man, a billionaire, a key Trump supporter, called the president and told him to leave Scott Pruitt alone, leaving the agency the substance of what he's doing there they believe is good. The question is, this is the president's decision. Will the headlines, the bad headlines, the draining the swamp, weigh out over the substance of what he's doing at the EPA? Only the president knows that -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jeff. And David Gergen, former adviser to four presidents is OUTFRONT. Obviously, David, we're talking about an EPA chief, you know, with a massive set of spending questions, including, you know, at one point $100,000 a month private jet and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Is the president keeping Pruitt at this point just to spite his chief of staff, John Kelly?</s>DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, we do know, Erin, is that in recent weeks, he's been going around Kelly. He seems to be paying less and less attention to his advice and I don't know how long Kelly will be willing to put up with that. But, clearly, the president is -- I mean, leaks are coming that Kelly wants to go, and the president is going to keep him, you know, more disclosure to come out that drive Pruitt down, you know, Trump is picking him up. And I do think that Kelly's involved. But I think more importantly right now, Trump is trying to get as far as he can with Pruitt because Pruitt is on a rampage. He's on a rampage about destroying them much of what's been done in the Environmental Protection Agency, and Trump wants to get as far as he can with that and Monday maybe the ethic stuff will finally knock him out. But he's gone a long way with Pruitt. And I think Trump approves it.</s>BURNETT: I mean, you know, what's interesting here, David, is, Rene Marsh tonight is reporting that Pruitt significantly, obviously, it's significantly below market rent of a room. Remember, the $50 a night, a rent that he was paying from a lobbyist, was even more fraught than we actually knew. She's reporting the lobbyists actually, you know, who gave the room to Pruitt thought, but he would move out last April, only be there for a little while, but he didn't. So, she started texting him kind of gentle reminders linked to other rentals, all of which he ignored. Finally, so frustrated he wouldn't take the hint and leave, she changed the keypad code to access the apartment, essentially she changed the locks on the EPA secretary. It's pretty stunning. By the way, he stayed there until August.</s>GERGEN: You don't know whether to laugh or cry on some of these stories. I mean, a room for $50 a night, and then he overstayed his welcome by three or four months. It's like -- it's unbelievable. I don't know what kind of human being he is. I mean, that's the thing. It's his character that comes in question on this. So, the grandiosity and thinking he can take advantage of the system, you know, he can have the lights on, he can have flashing lights on the car driver on Washington so we can go through the traffic. I mean, it's -- it goes on and on and on. I do think eventually, it's going to bring him down, but as I say I think Trump wants to ride this train as long as you can.</s>BURNETT: Right. Of course, showing that morals and ethics are, I supposed, OK when politically expedient. Thank you very much, David Gergen.</s>GERGEN: Thanks, Erin.</s>BURNETT: And next, evangelicals meeting with the president. Will Stormy Daniels come up? I'll ask Tony Perkins who is going to be there front and center. And breaking news, the first National Guard troops are now on their way to the American-Mexican border and we are live there tonight.