NBC News left out a key bit of information in a story on how the Trump administration “is using a lighter touch” when it comes to initiating enforcement actions against companies that break the law.
Specifically, NBC News reported Monday that at “the Environmental Protection Agency, there’s been a steep drop in both civil and criminal cases against polluters since the Obama administration, with new enforcement actions hitting a 10-year low in 2017.”
It’s correct there was a “steep drop” in EPA enforcement actions in 2017, but that’s a continuation of a trend that started under the Obama administration.
In fact, EPA criminal enforcement actions have declined almost every year after peaking at 387 in 2009. By 2017, the number of criminal cases brought had fallen to 115, according to EPA figures.
So why did criminal enforcement cases plummet during the Obama administration?
Environmental crimes are often complex and take time to investigate, and EPA said in 2014 that its “focus on high impact more complex cases results in fewer investigations overall.” – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]That brings us to Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times columnist who now thinks the leader of the free world isn’t the leader of the free world because he so happens to be Donald Trump and … well, perhaps we should let her explain it.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Goldberg was appearing on “Meet the Press Daily” on Friday. RealClearPolitics editor Caitlin Huey-Burns was taking a shot at Trump’s public communications strategy, which apparently she felt wasn’t befitting of “the leader of the free world.”
“He’s not the leader of the free world, but, sorry,” Goldberg interjected.
“By default he’s the leader of the free world,” John Podhoretz of Commentary shot back.
I’ll be perfectly honest here: I was expecting a Vladimir Putin quip. I would have put almost any amount of money on a Vlad joke. Thankfully, there aren’t instant betting markets on “MTP Daily” (probably for lack of viewers), because there would have gone my kids’ college fund.
“Angela Merkel is the leader of the free world,” Goldberg said. – READ MORE
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