A tea party-leaning Republican candidate in Raleigh, NC has his own theory about what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon’s rig on April 20. He’s calling for an investigation of his theory, but it might be hard for him to get a proper one one unless the FBI can make Mulder and/or Scully available. You see, according to Bill Randall — candidate for the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s 13th district — what happened in the Gulf involves a conspiracy between BP and the highest levels of the federal government.
“Personally, and this is purely speculative on my part and not based on any fact, but personally I feel there is a possibility that there was some sort of collusion,” Randall told reporters in North Carolina yesterday. “I don’t know how or why, but in that situation, if you have someone from a company violating a safety process and the government signing off on it, excuse me, maybe they wanted it to leak.”
Check out video of Randall’s statement here (obviously created by someone who is not his biggest fan):
Randall is facing Raleigh magazine publisher Bernie Reeves for the Republican nomination in the June 22 primary runoff. The race has been a nasty one, full of attacks on both sides. The man who wins will face Rep. Brad Miller (D), whom most prognosticators say is a lock for reelection.
So Randall is not likely to be the next Representative from North Carolina. But some of his views have already made it into the greater GOP narrative, as ThinkProgress reported yesterday. First came former FEMA director Michael Brown’s prediction that President Obama wanted the rig to blow up so he could safely shut down offshore drilling and appease his friends in the environmental movement. Rush Limbaugh agreed with that theory.
But surprisingly, as oil poured into the gulf and Obama threw resources and rhetoric at the problem, the “it’s all a giant conspiracy” theory didn’t catch on.
Randall, it seems, is ready to bring the idea back into fashion. (Yesterday and this morning, Randall and I were not able to connect for direct comment on what he said at the press conference despite multiple attempts on my part.) He told reporters that the political pickle the White House has found itself in over the BP spill isn’t due to the administration’s poorly-timed (in hindsight, anyway) advocacy for increased off-shore drilling three weeks before the well blew up. It’s because their scheme with BP to pour oil into the Gulf of Mexico for whatever reason worked a little too well.
“[I]t got beyond what was anticipated, and we had an explosion and loss of life,” Randall told reporters. “And, oh man, then we have panic. Is there a cover up going on? I’m not saying there necessarily is. But I think there’s enough facts on the table for people that (they) really need to do some investigative research and find out what went on with that and get a subpoena of records and everything else.”
