‘How Is That Zero Evidence?’: Trump EPA Chief Dresses Down Legacy Media During Fiery Press Conference
- April 21, 2025
Nick Pope, Daily Caller
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin criticized several legacy media outlets on Monday for downplaying key facts related to the agency’s fight to claw back billions of dollars the Biden EPA awarded to green groups loaded with Democrat insiders.
Zeldin criticized The New York Times, The Washington Post and Politico for suggesting to their readers that there is scant “evidence” to support the Trump administration’s argument that billions of taxpayer dollars awarded to groups linked to Democrat insiders can be taken back at the press conference. Zeldin suggested that reporters from certain outlets “are willing to sacrifice [their] own integrity and the integrity of [their] paper to make a claim that there’s no evidence” of potential fraud, abuse or Democrat self-dealing occurring with the Biden EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a $20 billion program established by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Federal law enforcement authorities are currently investigating the GGRF, and an appeals court intervened on Wednesday to stay a previous court ruling that would have forced the EPA to unfreeze Citibank accounts where the funds are being held. The DCNF has reported extensively on the political connections of people affiliated with GGRF recipient organizations, many of whom formerly worked for the Obama and Biden administrations or have donated to benefit Democratic candidates and organizations.
“There have been requests for funds that come in from these recipients to Citibank, in the hopes that there would be that brief moment where they can get access to their funds, and then as soon as they have access to their funds, clear out as much as they can, which actually only ends up adding to the argument in favor of irreparable harm if that freeze was lifted while going through the appeals process,” Zeldin said in response to a Daily Caller News Foundation question about whether GGRF recipients have been able to access the funding at all since EPA froze the money. “The fact that so much money would instantly go out the door if you lifted it for a second is one of the reasons why the appeals court would be hearing it as quickly as possible. And, you know, we’ll see where the process goes from there, but we’re confident in the argument on the merits.”