Morning Vid: Obama Wants an 'Ass to Kick' for BP Oil Spill

John Hudson Jun 8, 2010

In a hard-hitting interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, President Obama said he's looking for an "ass to kick" for the BP oil spill. To a degree, the president was goaded into the comment (Lauer suggested that the president needed to "kick some butt"). Regardless, the interview is collecting a lot of buzz in the blogosphere.

Lauer pressed the president on a number of points, including the administration's apparent trust in BP in the early days of the spill and Obama's failure to meet personally with BP CEO Tony Hayward.

The Today Show host also touched on a point broached by The Atlantic's Josh Green: Obama's "overweening faith in expert opinion." Obama pushed back with the following quote:

I was down there a month ago before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf... I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers -- so I know whose ass to kick.

Money quote drops at 10:50:

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