Kristin Mink's exchange with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is the latest instance of a Trump administration official being castigated in public. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Woman with toddler confronts Pruitt at D.C. restaurant

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was accosted Monday inside a Washington café by a woman who urged him “to resign before your scandals push you out.”

“Hi, I just wanted to urge you to resign because of what you’re doing to the environment and our country,” Kristin Mink told Pruitt inside a Teaism restaurant in downtown Washington, not far from the EPA’s Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters. “This is my son. He loves animals. He loves clean air. He loves clean water. Meanwhile, you’re slashing strong fuel standards for cars and trucks, for the benefit of big corporations.”


Mink, who was holding her son as she spoke to the EPA administrator, posted a video of the encounter on her Facebook page.

She cited Pruitt’s $50-per-night condo rental from the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist, slashing of regulations and approval of fossil fuel projects as evidence of his poor stewardship of the EPA.

Although the video does not show it, Mink said in her video that Pruitt quickly left the restaurant after she confronted him.

“Administrator Pruitt always welcomes input from Americans, whether they agree or disagree with the decisions being made at EPA. This is evident by him listening to her comments and going on to thank her, which is not shown in the video," EPA spokesman Lincoln Ferguson said in a statement. "His leaving had nothing to do with the confrontation, he had simply finished his meal and needed to get back to EPA for a briefing.”

Monday’s exchange is the latest instance of a Trump administration official being castigated in public. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen left a Mexican restaurant near the White House last month when a group interrupted her dinner to protest the administration’s practice of separating families of undocumented immigrants, and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Lexington, Virginia, restaurant last month by its owner.