White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs ripped Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology to BP today, calling Barton’s words “shameful” and suggesting that “members from both parties should repudiate his comments.”
At today’s House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on the BP oil spill, Barton said this of the $20 billion Gulf spill fund that BP has agreed to create at the Obama administration’s request: “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown.”
Gibbs said in a statement that “Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now.”
Here’s the full statement:
What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.
