CBS News’ Chip Reid Asks Robert Gibbs If BP Is Lying To The Administration

by Jon Bershad | 4:10 pm, June 1st, 2010

» 5 comments

Since Barack Obama first burst onto the national scene, many have complimented him for his thoughtful and dispassionate demeanor (remember those Spock comparisons?). However, with the oil spill in the Gulf getting worse by the day, many are starting to wish for a little more fire from the president. So, when Robert Gibbs mentioned that Obama was “enraged” about the spill, CBS’ Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid wanted to know if that was true and if, perhaps, there wasn’t enough rage from the administration directed at BP, the company who seemed to be lying to them.

When Gibbs would only say that Obama was “frustrated” with BP, Reid pointed out that “frustration” and “rage” are two very different things and asked what an enraged Obama even looks like (the image of Obama throwing chairs got quite a few chuckles from the rest of the corp). Gibbs assured him, behind closed doors, Obama was very much enraged, even occasionally using the D-word! After he’d spoken, Reid asked a question many had been wondering: is BP lying to the administration?

“I’m saying, you’ve got this difference over the 20% which the administration, you say they were uncomfortable. It seems like that’s a pretty mild response to it. And then, at the press conference, the president said that they have an interest in minimizing things. It sounds like you’re suggesting that BP is lying to the administration. Wouldn’t you have a stronger response to that?”

Gibbs wouldn’t admit that BP was “intentionally misleading,” just not “forthcoming.” Reid then asked if Obama trusted BP to which Gibbs would not give a yes or no answer.

barack obama, BP, BP oil leak, BP Oil Spill, Chip Reid, Gulf Oil Spill, Robert Gibbs

TylerDurden

BHO is enraged at his and his admins. incompetence.
felixw

The Democrats are making a big mistake here. Their main focus should be on fixing the leak and resolving the problem. But it seems that Obama and company are more interested in the blame game and playing politics.

I know that the Democrats cannot resist the temptation to flog BP here. And they certainly deserve flogging. Yet, at the same time, the administration needs to work with BP in fixing this mess. And how do you work with someone in a crisis situation, while you are using every opportunity to score points and attack them? This is one instance in which less rhetoric and more action is advised.

Obama was forced to chose between playing politics and showing leadership. Predictably, he has chosen the former.
lazzzlo

Felix…you make a good point.

I’m sure that someone has always made a bad decision or not made a decision that has been ignored, hoping that the problem goes away.

This isn’t going away anytime soon and no amount of finger-pointing or “blame-game” political machinations are going to solve this problem.

It sucks and people are suffering.
lazzzlo

And as a Floridian, it’s hurricane season…it’s just going to get more difficult.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Jones/1384303476 Chris Jones

Why is everybody acting like a bunch of school kids over this crisis? Nobody has more incentive to get the damn well capped than BP. Does anyone seriously believe that BP isn’t doing EVERYTHING it possibly can to stop the leak? They have the best engineers and the best equipment on the planet. This pissing match between the administration and BP is silly. The Feds claiming they’re in charge and threatening to takeover the spill from BP is a joke. The federal government has neither the brainpower nor the equipment to do a damn thing about the oil leak. If BP hasn’t been able to cap the damn well it’s because it can’t be capped. But the solution will ultimately come from BP regardless of how long it takes.

On a side note, the best way to prevent this from happening in the future is to stop pushing oil drilling further and further out to sea. Let us drill the damn oil on land and it won’t be so risky. BP has to drill so far off shore and so deep underwater they may as well be drilling on Mars. The eco-extremist nuts are the ones responsible for this mess. We human beings have mastered on-shore drilling and we can do it with an unbelievably tiny footprint and do it safely. Drilling off-shore 1 or 2 miles underwater is like working in deep space. We’re still trying to get the hang of it. We can do it safely 99% of the time, but the further out we go and the deeper we drill the more likely mistakes are to happen.

Also, the Russians have stopped gas leaks with underground nuclear explosions (See video: http://bit.ly/aTYHcr). I’m betting this would stop the oil leak. It would also have the added bonus of driving the eco-nuts into uncontrollable seizures.