keywords: president barack obama, press conference, bp oil spill
Synopsis: President Obama held his first press conference in 10-months and defensively insisted that his administration, not BP, was in charge and calling the shots on the worst oil spill in the nation's history. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill dominated the hour-long session... (read more)
Pres. Barack Obama: Press Conference - BP Oil Spill
He said "The federal government is fully engaged, and I'm fully engaged. The United States government has always been in charge of making sure that the response is appropriate. Every day I see this leak continue I am angry and frustrated as well”.
Obama called the spill an "unprecedented disaster" and blasted a "scandalously close relationship" he said has persisted between Big Oil and government regulators. He also announced new steps to deal with the aftermath of the spill, including continuing a moratorium on drilling permits for six months and also suspended planned exploration drilling off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia and on 33 wells under way in the Gulf of Mexico.
After Obama's remarks he fielded questions from the news media. Some of the questions were:
“How can you say that everything that can be done is being done with all these officials and all these experts saying that’s not true?”
The President was also asked how he would respond to respond to those who say this spill is turning into Obama’s Katrina and answered by saying “I’ll leave it to you guys to make those comparisons, because what I’m spending my time thinking about is how to solve the problem,” Obama said. “I’m confident that people are going to look back and say that this administration was on top of what was an unprecedented crisis.”
The President was also asked about the phrase “boot on the neck,” which Salazar and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs have used in referring to how the Obama administration was dealing with BP.
Obama closed with a story about his daughter Malia asking him this morning while he shaved: “Did you plug the hole yet Daddy?”
