Notes From Today's White House Press Briefing

White House Press Briefing
With Press Secretary Robert Gibbs


NORTH KOREA ATTACK

Gibbs said the US is involved in reviewing South Korea’s claim that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of one of its vessels back in March. Gibbs says the White House “strongly condemned” the attack when it happened, and said the administration is in consultations with the South Koreans and other nations, as well as the UN Security Council. Gibbs called the attack an “act of aggression” and said if in fact, North Korea was behind the attack, their actions will have isolated them even more from the rest of the world. Gibbs said the US is committed to South Korea’s defense. Gibbs called the alleged attack “extremely troubling.”


OIL SPILL

Gibbs said that the EPA supports BP’s use of an underwater dispersant to deal with the oil that is spilling 5,000 feet below the sea surface in the Gulf. Gibbs said that POTUS, however, would like BP to make its clean up efforts a bit more transparent. Gibbs defended the White House’s decision to send a letter to BP putting pressure on the company to speed up its clean-up efforts and informing the company that it will be held liable for all clean-up costs associated with the giant spill. Gibbs said Coast Guard Commander Adm. Thad Allen told him that he hasn’t seen a situation as bad as this in over 30 years. Gibbs said Allen has agreed to stay on as the White House’s point man on the spill even after he retires later this year. Gibbs said he wasn’t bothered that BP CEO Tony Hayward will be traveling to Europe to attend meetings. Gibbs refuted the notion that BP cares more about preventing a public relations crisis then fixing the leak and cleaning up the spill. Gibbs repeated the White House’s assertion that BP will be forced to pay for all the cleanup fees. “They will get the bill,” he said. “The taxpayers won’t.” Gibbs said everything that can be done to stop the leak is being done. Gibbs also said that the five Gulf state Governors have been participating in morning conference calls about the spill every day.


SESTAK/WHITE HOUSE RUMOR

Gibbs refused to address reports that the White House offered Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) a job in the administration earlier this year to keep him from running for the Senate against Arlen Specter. Said Gibbs, “I don’t have anything to add to what I said in March.”


FINANCIAL REFORM

Gibbs said POTUS believes in putting strong rules in place in the financial system, and said that doing so would improve the condition of the country’s economy as a whole. Gibbs said financial reform would directly benefit folks on Main Street struggling to either keep their jobs or find new ones. When asked about the Senate bill, Gibbs said, “we’re coming to the end of the process.” Gibbs said that the mid-term elections this November will be a partial referendum on financial reform.


PRIMARIES

Gibbs said the primaries proved that the Democratic Party is truly the ‘big-tent’ party. Gibbs downplayed the fact that newly-elected Congressman Mark Critz (D) ran away from POTUS during his primary race, saying he doubted that there are many Democrats in Congress who agree with everything POTUS does or supports. Gibbs said the primaries showed that Republicans are “having an internal battle with themselves.” On the topic of Arlen Speter, Gibbs said only that the GOP kicked Specter out of their party after his years and years of service to them. He said the same for Charlie Crist and Bob Bennett, and agreed with the belief that this is a tough year for any incumbent in Congress. Gibbs said VPOTUS connected with Specter earlier today. Gibbs also said that Rand Paul’s remarks about not voting for the Civil Rights Act “should not have a place in our political dialogue in 2010.”


SALAHIS

Gibbs was asked about a report which alleged that the Salahis were apparently stopped by Secret Service in their limo near the White House last night, and he responded that once again, they were not on the guest list. “I shook my head...once again,” he said while explaining that he was aware of the report. “It seems like their 15 minutes of fame were up six months ago,” he added.


CALDERON VISIT

Gibbs more or less sideswiped a question about POTUS’s feelings on Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s remarks yesterday on the recently-passed immigration law in Arizona. Gibbs said only that both Presidents share the view that they disagree with the law. Gibbs did not specifically say whether or not POTUS agrees with Calderon’s call for a flat-out ban on assault weapons, Gibbs said he had not heard of a report yesterday that an elementary school student told FLOTUS, who was visiting the schoolchildren, that her mother was an illegal immigrant.


IRAN NUCLEAR AGREEMENT

Gibbs called Iran’s agreement with Turkey and Brazil over its uranium stockpile a “step in the right direction....assuming Iran keeps up its end of the deal.” Gibbs said the proposal between the three nations still does not fully address all the concerns that the P5 have about Iran’s nuclear program. Gibbs added that the agreement is less than what Iran agreed to eight months ago.

Boehner: Politicians Beware

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico / Talk Radio News Service

In light of Republican Senator Bob Bennett's failure to receive his party's support in Utah last Saturday and 14 term Democratic Representative Alan Mollohan's primaty loss in West Virginia Tuesday night, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that there is "a political rebellion going on in America.”

“Politicians beware,” Boehner said. “The American people are awake [and] they’re more involved in their government than anytime in our history.”

Boehner said that the American public is particularly upset and irritated by the “arrogance” of Washington and added that there will be similar political coups on the horizon unless, Boehner contends, Washington takes what Americans want into consideration.

“I think it’s critically important to listen to the American people and work with them to make the changes in the government here that the American people want,” Boehner said. "The sooner that happens the better."

Black gold not flowing so quickly

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) held a hearing this morning focusing on the effects of high oil prices and the nations economy before the Joint Economic Committee. Schumer and the other democrats on the committee lambasted the Bush Administration for what they said was an inability to “lesson our dependence on foreign oil,” said Schumer.

Republicans on the committee though charged that it has been democrats who deserve much of the blame for high oil prices. Specifically, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah.) placed blame on democrats for their resistance to supporting drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [ANWR]. Directing his remarks towards Sen. Schumer, Bennett said “you made reference to ANWR and said it will take ten years and to quote that great economist Jay Leno “that’s what democrats said ten years ago” when they refused to agree to open ANWR.”

But much of the time was spent listening to the committees witnesses which included Dr. Daniel Yergin from Cambridge Energy Research Associates. According to Yergin, approximately 60 percent of our energy comes from oil and gasoline and one reason why the price of oil has risen 70 percent has been a shortage of the overall supply of oil itself. “There’s been a slow response of supply; why? One is the issue of access around the world, secondly is uncertainty about investment fiscal and regulatory regimes and thirdly a shortage of equipment and people,” said Yergin.

Yergin also attributed the shaky economic oil markets to the psychology of its consumers. “I’m really struck by this kind of pessimism about future supply,” said Yergin, “you have to have trust in the market.”

If anyone needed any affirmation though that oil would play an important issue in this falls election Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told the committee “it’s what my constituents are all talking about.”