Former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Gina McCarthy has made her contempt for the current agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, very clear.
Last year, McCarthy wrote a scathing op-ed in The New York Times that laid out the full breadth of her disapproval for Pruitt's leadership.
In the article, Whitman argued that while the EPA is supposed to protect the environment and public health, the agency "may end up doing neither under Mr. Pruitt's direction."
"The evidence is abundant of the dangerous political turn of an agency that is supposed to be guided by science," she wrote.
Last week on Real Time with Bill Maher, McCarthy expressed her worry about the future of the agency once again.
"Just because it has the word environment in it doesn't mean we do birds and bunnies and polar bears… It's really about kids; it's about public health; it's about safe drinking water and clean air," she explained.
"And the man who took over? Scott Pruitt?" Maher asked.
"Yeah, that's not what he's about," McCarthy said.
"The only thing that could be worse is if he actually knew what he was doing," she added.
Still, as Maher pointed out, the number of environmental regulations that Pruitt has worked to dismantle suggests he might know exactly what he's doing.
"He's making some policy decisions," McCarthy agreed.
"But in the end he's trying to get rid of a lot of rules that were put in place that were done well. And every time there have been challenges in court, he's gone down."
Since taking the leading position at the EPA, Pruitt has been accused of sidelining science in favor of industry interests.
During his time at the EPA, the vast majority of Pruitt's meetings have been held with industry experts instead of scientists or enviromentalists, and the term " climate change" has all but disappeared from the EPA's website.
Plus, Pruitt has worked to repeal a number of key environmental regulations, and he has supported massive cuts to the agency's funding.
By no means is that short list extensive. The number of changes to the agency under Pruitt's leadership goes on and on.
McCarthy told Maher that Pruitt's actions amount to nothing more or less than an "all-out attack on science" and an "all-out attack on the agency."
"Science isn't a religion, it's facts," she said.
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