Quote of the Day: “You’re a Piece of Trash”

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From EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox, asked for comment about the resignation of two aides to Scott Pruitt:

You have a great day, you’re a piece of trash.

So professional. The backstory here is that a few weeks ago an Atlantic reporter revealed that Pruitt had asked for permission to raise the salaries of two of his favorite staffers, both of whom had followed him to DC from Oklahoma. Even though he was turned down, Pruitt gave them raises anyway. Millan Hupp, a 26-year-old scheduler, ended up making $114,590 until the Atlantic story came out and Pruitt was forced to rescind the raises.

Obviously Wilcox takes this personally, which is why he told Elaina Plott she was a piece of trash when she called for comment today about Hupp’s resignation. But he must have missed this part:

According to one top EPA official, the 26-year-old was “tired of being thrown under the bus by Pruitt,” and weary of seeing her name constantly appear in headlines about the agency. Officials began drafting her resignation paperwork on Monday morning, just after portions of her congressional testimony were made public.

Pruitt must be a real shitbag. Hupp has worked for Pruitt for several years, and even without the raise she was making $86,460 at age 26. That’s not bad for a 2014 graduate of Oklahoma State University majoring in Hotel and Restaurant Administration. Pruitt must have treated her pretty badly to finally get her to quit what’s really a pretty plum job.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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