Fox News host Neil Cavuto delivered an impassioned defense of ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown today, asserting that Brown never said that the White House was behind the Gulf Coast oil spill.
As we have previously reported, Brown accused the administration of playing “pure politics” with the spill and delaying its response so it had an excuse to shut down offshore drilling.
Brown had appeared on Cavuto’s show on Monday touting the theory that Obama wanted a crisis like the oil spill: “This is exactly what they want, because now [Obama] can pander to the environmentalists and say, ‘I’m gonna shut it down because it’s too dangerous.'”
Today, Cavuto also addressed White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who had hit at Brown and Fox News yesterday for insinuating “that this spill was leaked on purpose in order for us to walk back our environmental and drilling decisions.”
“No, no, he didn’t say that, Robert,” said Cavuto. “Michael Brown never said the administration deliberately set off the leak. Not once, not ever.”
He added: “That is beyond laughable,” before inviting Gibbs on his show to debate the point.
Watch:
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Fire In The Gulf: New Pictures Of The Deepwater Horizon]
