The Silent Treatment: BP CEO Tony Hayward and President Obama

Rory Cooper / June 08, 2010

News reports today on the oil spill in the Gulf have centered on the president’s crude remarks that he was looking for an “a** to kick.” But what has been largely unreported is the fact that President Obama has not spoken with BP CEO Tony Hayward one single time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April. Not once.

Speaking to the BBC, Hayward said: “There is no need for that…I have spoken to his key lieutenants.”

Whether Hayward sees a need for this conversation is immaterial. Just yesterday, Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer that he would fire Hayward if under his employ, for the obtuse remarks the CEO recently made about wanting his life back. Obama has made vilifying BP’s corporate leadership a centerpiece of his oil spill response, and yet, not once has the president felt the need to directly address the chief executive officer of the company responsible for the Gulf disaster and for capping the leak? (more…)