U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt may not survive long in his job after reports that he paid below market rate to live in a condo owned by a lobbyist who deals with issues overseen by his agency, lawmakers and a former Trump official said in television interviews on Sunday.

On Friday, ABC News and Bloomberg News reported that during Pruitt's first six months in Washington last year, he made a deal to pay about $50 a night — less than a third the price of similar properties — to rent a room in a Capitol Hill neighborhood condo building co-owned by energy industry lobbyist Steven Hart and his wife.

"I don't know how you survive this one, and if he has to go, it's because he never should have been there in the first place, said Chris Christie, the Republican former governor of New Jersey, on Sunday on ABC News' "This Week" program.