EPA Chief Pruitt Flies First Class Because Coach Passengers Abuse Him

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has claimed he has to fly first class because he gets abused by other passengers if he sits in coach.

Scott Pruitt defended his decision to spend taxpayer’s money on luxury air travel, saying he had been shouted at on numerous occasions, including by a man who told him “you’re fucking up the environment” while filming the incident on his cell phone, his team told Politico.

Henry Barnet, the director of the EPAs Office of Criminal Enforcement, told Politico: “He was approached in the airport numerous times, to the point of profanities being yelled at him and so forth.”

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“We felt that based on the recommendation from the team leader, the special agent in charge, that it would be better suited to have him in business or first class, away from close proximity from those individuals who were approaching him and being extremely rude, using profanities and potential for altercations and so forth,” he added.

Barnet’s comments come following criticism leveled at Pruitt over his use of first class travel, amplified by former administrator's Gina McCarthy habit of flying coach in her role, according to her staffers at the time.

However, Pruitt has insisted that he is often recognized and subjected to unusual levels of vitriol. The agency itself says that the amount of threats they have received with Pruitt at the helm has also increased.

“We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment,” Pruitt explained in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader  this week.

“We’ve reached the point where there’s not much civility in the marketplace and it’s created, you know, it’s created some issues and the [security] detail, the level of protection is determined by the level of threat,” he added.