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John King, USA

BP Oil Spill

Aired June 04, 2010 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN KING, HOST: Thanks, Wolf. Breaking news tonight, a dramatic move by embattled BP, its controversial CEO Tony Hayward is handing off responsibility for the spill cleanup to another top company official. The company will create a new division to manage the long-term spill response in the Gulf of Mexico. Board member Robert Dudley will be in charge of BP's financial obligations and his big mission, restoring trust and confidence in the company. After 46 frustrating days and so many attempts to as the president might say plug the damn hole this statement might be a little tough to swallow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Or over the next 24, 48 hours and it is way too early to be optimistic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Yes, more waiting before we know if BP's new cap will dramatically reduce the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Another 24 to 48 hours. Sound familiar? But at least the cap is in place. Here's a live look right now. The issue is whether this cap holds after BP closes several events that are critical if the device is to contain most of the oil instead of just a modest amount.

We wish we could tell you the current volume of oil flowing out but information from BP and the government is excruciatingly hard to come by. Our best estimate is in the box or the bottom right of your screen. And we will keep the live underwater images there as well throughout the hour.

We've also just learned some other new important information, research at University of South Florida confirms the leaking oil has collected into more than one plume beneath the ocean's surface. Something BP has been suggesting is not happening.

And during the president's trip to Louisiana, the White House announced he's invited the families of the 11 victims who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion to come to the White House next Thursday. The president himself heading back to Washington this hour -- today's five-hour visit his third to the Gulf Coast since the explosion and spill. His meetings today included a flash of anger at BP for spending millions of television and newspaper ads at a time some local businesses hit by the spill say the company is slow to pay their claims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: They've got moral and legal obligations here in the Gulf for course the damage that has been done. And what I don't want to hear is when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising that they're nickel and diming fishermen or small businesses here in the Gulf who are having a hard time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Bashing BP went over well with the local officials on hand to meet the president, but many of them also have grievances with Washington, too. Let's go inside those conversations with two local leaders who were right there with the president. Michel Claudet is president of the Terrebonne Parish. And Tim Kerner is the mayor of the town of Jean Lafitte. Gentlemen, first and foremost what did you get from the president today that you didn't have this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We thought that he had a very well-run meeting. He certainly directed the Coast Guard to do everything possible and the response area. And I feel really good about that. He also really touched upon the claims process and how it has not been working but efforts will be made to absolutely make it work and then of course we touched upon the drilling moratorium after that.

KING: You say the claims process has not been working. I want to just say during the president's meeting today BP did put out another release saying that it is now making a second round of payment. It says overall by the end of June it will have paid $84 million to local individuals and businesses, 14,000 total individuals receiving those payments in Louisiana, 7,900 individuals receiving some $50 million. The company says it is trying to do its part as quickly as possible. I'm getting the impression you gentlemen don't share that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me just say this, when they talk about people receiving checks, some of the fishermen are actually receiving checks but there's a lot of businesses that filed claim that haven't received anything yet and they're in a position where they may have to fold.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right and please understand most of the fishermen received one check and not received a second check. That was confirmed that they would receive a second check today. And some of the businesses that are in the processing area they basically did not have product to process even though they had sales. They didn't have product to process. And consequently they were not looking at that as a loss on the business. And since the employees couldn't do anything they lay off the employees rather than receive a check from BP. We were told that that would be corrected.

KING: We learned just before we came on air that Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, a man who is extremely unpopular in your state has decided to step aside and to hand off the management of the spill response from here on out to Mr. Dudley, who is an American, who is a senior member of the BP board. Does that make any difference to you? Do you think that the problems have been central to Tony Hayward, is it just a change or personnel or what do you need?

MAYOR TIM KERNER, JEAN LAFITTE, LOUISIANA: Let me tell you something, I think it's a very good move. He made comments -- well not him, but right under him that there are shrimp in other places not just in Louisiana and you know that the workers may have got sick by food poisoning. You know those things were just -- just -- they didn't show any compassion. At this time, you know, the CEO ought to show compassion because what you're doing is taking an area and you're putting them out of work and those people, those fishermen, that I have in my area that's working around the clock, trying to keep the oil out, putting up boom, they are sitting there, you know grown men, strong men, and some of them are actually crying and not -- and worried about what's actually going to take place in their lives. And they don't know if they're going to be able to fish next month or 30 years from now so I think the CEO ought to be compassionate and show a little you know compassion towards those people -- compassion.

KING: I was talking to somebody close to the governor today who -- I'm sorry, you want to jump? Go ahead, sir.

MICHEL CLAUDET, TERREBONNE PARISH PRESIDENT: No, I was going to say I met Mr. Suttles a number of times. I believe he is more understanding of our situation right now. And of course he does come from our area and so I think that it would be a good replacement.

KING: I was talking to somebody close to the governor today, and the governor's had some issues with the White House and with the pace of the Washington response and the pace of getting decisions but he said that the president needs to come more often because when the president comes things start to move. Is that a fair characterization?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most definitely.

KERNER: Could I just say that you know, I was a little disappointed with the reaction from the White House at the beginning. I see now that I really believe that this president is, you know, sympathetic towards it. He wants to do something, but it's our job to make him knowledgeable about what has to take place. You take my area (INAUDIBLE) to Grand Isle, there are miles and miles of marshland and marine life where you're -- it produces 100 million pounds of shell fish a year.

It's a very important area. You know they're putting up boom to protect that area right now, the fishermen, to save their livelihood and their way of life. But we need to educate them that, you know 15 to 25-mile-per-hour winds from the south or a depression or a hurricane, that's going to push the oil in and destroy this precious wetlands, so we need to let him know that hey dredging or rocks, something needs to block that path to block the oil in to save this -- those communities.

KING: You both sound more impressed with the president today and more impressed that he is understanding this. After the last visit down there, one of your colleagues, the president of Plaquemines Parish Billy Nungesser, said that Thad Allen was incompetent, the president's Coast Guard commandant down there who is now the incident commander, that he was incompetent and needed to be fired. Have the tempers calmed? Are people in the room thinking, OK, these guys maybe they were a little slow but they get it now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't have any belief that Thad Allen is incompetent. I think he's trying. I think there's a disconnect between when he gives an order and when it's actually acted upon in the field. And we discussed that today and there are going to be actions that are going to be taking place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually (INAUDIBLE) month from now, if I see that the passes (ph) are being rocked (ph) or they're being blocked with sand or some type of way to protect my area and protect my -- our wetlands and my commercial fishermen, then I will say he's competent. But right now, you know, the verdict's out. I think the president came in, he showed, he talked about the working man, he talked about the fishermen. He doesn't want those people losing their boats. He doesn't want them losing their houses, so I was very impressed with the president. But now we need to see some action and hopefully I hope and pray that he follows through.

KING: Let me ask you lastly about the one source of friction, I believe you both have with the White House and that is the question of this offshore, the deep water moratorium. The president told you in the meeting that it would stay in place for six months that perhaps he would lift it a bit sooner if the commission he has appointed comes back to him and convinces him this can be done safely. But the commission is not even fully staffed yet. It has not started its work, so you're looking to probably at least for probably the entire six months before the president gets that information. What is the economic impact if in your view if the president waits six months, before lifting the deep water moratorium?

CLAUDET: That economic impact in Terrebonne Parish is going to be devastating. Probably 60 percent of my parish works directly or indirectly with the oil field. Two things were said in that meeting which, you know, I was somewhat surprised. One, it was said that without a definite date or a quicker response time, those rigs may leave the Gulf and we were told by the president that that could be true, he was aware of that. But the oil was still underneath the Gulf and when they opened it again they would come back.

And experts in that area have questioned whether or not that is correct or not in a number of years. And then the other thing was, we asked about the massive lay-offs and the economic disaster that's going to occur from all the activity in the Gulf with all the companies and he indicated that that would be a claim for BP. And again, I could understand shutting down BP's rigs, but another operator who has had no problems, it's hard for me to explain how an administrative order is going to be related to the BP spill in this area other than the safety regulations that should have been in place by the federal government. And I mean the MMS has been regulating this. They've been inspecting it, and quite honestly, those other rigs are not in any way in that shape because of BP at this particular time. So I'm hopeful he's correct that it is a BP claim. But I just am hopeful in that area. (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It also would be devastating for my area also, not only with the jobs but Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter has gotten us a portion of revenue sharing. That revenue sharing can be spent for coastal restoration and also levees. In my area (INAUDIBLE) and several other areas (INAUDIBLE) that's why it's so important right now to block the passes because if the oil comes in during a depression, it's going to not only destroy the wetlands it's going to be in our homes and because we don't have sufficient levees. This offshore revenue sharing it gives us a little money towards levees and coastal restoration, so yes, it would be a terrible thing for my area also.

KING: Gentlemen, we thank you for your time tonight and your insight and taking us inside the meeting with the president of the United States. We will keep in touch and we certainly wish you both and your communities' good luck and good health in the days ahead. Thank you both, gentlemen, very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate it.

KING: When we come back we'll continue our coverage of this. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on the scene. He's been talking to people all day long about the concerns the gentlemen just raised, the economic impact not only of the spill but of the potential for extending that offshore moratorium for months more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Live image there of the BP underwater camera right at the well riser. You can see right there, that's not the picture you had hoped to see by now. The cap is in place, but there is still a great amount of oil spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico. The question is, over the next several hours, as BP tries to close four vents on that cap, does it, does it significantly restrict the flow of oil?

We will keep watching those pictures. You can see them in the bottom right of your screen as well. As the oil continues to flow and a community is devastated, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been making the rounds touching base with local residents who not only want that oil stopped, they want their economy back and to a degree, Sanjay, they also need their psyches healed.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They do. And I just heard your interview before obviously the economic impact is something that everyone is thinking about. They also think about the physical health of the workers out there who have been exposed long periods of time, sometimes too long and then you've gotten sick, as you know, John, but you're right. The mental health toll of this may be a little bit non-intuitive. So many people here so devastated by this and they say in many ways it's worse than what happened after Katrina in terms of mental health, this idea, John that a man-made disaster has a more profound impact on someone's psyche than a natural disaster. After Katrina, so many people rallied together to try and rebuild. Here, people are just angry. They're frustrated. They recognize that a chain, you know generations of fishermen, generations of shrimpers, those chains may be coming to an end and it's tough to see, John.

KING: And what are the health risks, Sanjay, not only right where you are in Louisiana but as you spread around the Gulf, as the slick starts to move to the east and we've seen some oil come ashore in Alabama and Mississippi, some tar balls beginning to come ashore in Florida. And that is the big question in coming days. I saw the mayor of Pensacola, was on the air with Wolf a while back saying the beaches are safe. You can go swimming even though some tar balls have come ashore. He says they're cleaning up as quickly as they can, not to worry. Is that true? Is it a not to worry?

GUPTA: Well I think the best way to think about this is in terms of gradations of safe. It is obvious that the closest to the source of this oil especially when it's mixed with those dispersants is going to be the most dangerous. It does tend to weather as they call it, as experts have told me, as it moves away from that source. What that means is there's these volatile organic compounds that are part of this oil sometimes dispersant mixture, those start to be given off and as you move further and further away, over time it does become safer from that extent. But you know touching it, interacting with it can still be very irritating, prolonged exposure to it in terms of breathing it in can still be problematic. But these tar balls probably not as big a problem, certainly John though as these slicks that you see further out in the ocean.

KING: Two hundred and thirty-four billion dollars is the estimate of what that Gulf economy is. And that is all of those fishermen. It is the tourism-related industries. It is the guys who work out and the women who work out sometimes out on those rigs. I guess the question is to the uncertainty. Many of them don't know whether they work on a rig or whether they work on a shrimp boat, when they'll be able to go back to work.

GUPTA: And many of them think they're not. And I was with these two women yesterday, they're part of this support group, and they said, look, you know my husband literally grew up in a shrimp boat. They have pictures of him in a basket on a shrimp boat. They knew he was going to be a shrimper from the moment he was born.

And he did the same for his son, his son is now 9 years old. And they took a boat ride out just a couple of weeks ago and the husband looked at the wife and now the 9-year-old son and said take a good look around. I think this may be the last time that we get to do this sort of thing anymore. It is a brutal realization. Again, we're not just talking about a few years.

We're talking about four generations of -- they've been doing this. Let me just add as well, John, if I can, from a mental health standpoint after Katrina the mental health resources dramatically reduced in this town because doctors left, their clinics shut down and that was at the same time that the demand went up. Well the demand has just gone up again, John, as a result of this and there's a lot of people who are suffering with some of these mental health issues.

KING: Sanjay Gupta, we appreciate your help reporting the personal toll. Something we need to keep an eye on long after this spill is stopped. We need to keep track of that. Sanjay, thanks for your help.

A lot more to come tonight including on this particular issue we'll get closer. When we come back we'll go "Wall-to-Wall" and we'll look at exactly where the spill is going and where it's hitting the beach and the economic impact not just on the oil industry but on tourism and so many other industries as well.

And we'll go "One-on-One" tonight with Congressman Ed Markey. He is one of the leaders in Congress leading the investigation into what went wrong. And he wants to know what did BP know about problems long before the explosion and the spill.

On my "Radar" tonight stay with us for this, a new unemployment report that might encourage you except a lot of the new jobs are temp jobs and the president today filled one of the most important of his intelligence jobs. And Pete is on the street tonight and he's focusing on this. He wants to know if you were BP what would you do right now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: In "Wall-to-Wall" tonight a closer look at the economic impact and the environmental impact of this. This is the live picture of the BP camera. The oil still spewing, even though the cap is in place, more than 35 million gallons is the estimated amount leaked so far. That's an estimate. We really don't know for sure. And as this oil continues to spew, one of the things we want to look at is the economic impact on the Gulf Coast states. Let's take a look at the area most affected here.

If you look at this in Texas, over here, the unemployment rate is 8.3 percent, Louisiana it was 6.7 percent coming into this month, 11.5 percent in Mississippi, 11 percent in Alabama, 12 percent in Florida. Look at the average income in each of those states ranging from $37,000 to $50,000 in Texas. Why do we point that out, because a lot of people can't work right now because of the moratorium on deep water drilling. The average income for those jobs a lot higher than most of the jobs you can get onshore.

So losing those jobs will have a domino effect on the regional economies. Now where is this spread -- the oil heading? Where is it spreading and what is the potential impact to come? Let's go over here to the "Magic Wall" and take a look. Excuse me for passing through. This red line is the area of the Gulf that is off-limits to fishing right now, 37 percent of the Gulf waters. And again, we want to remind you of some of the damage. Some of you saw these tragic pictures last night as they come up. These are birds just soaked, just soaked in oil barely -- they can barely move. They are being cared for tonight. That is one of the big environmental questions, how many are there like that who need help? Here are some additional pictures up and this is just in the Mississippi area here, tar balls, they are coming ashore on some of the beaches. Some of them you can see, about the size of a baseball in the palm of your hand being cleaned up as quick as possible, but evidence again that the spill is shifting in there.

Here you will see, this is a still -- a still photograph here. Oil in the sand here being cleaned up in the beaches as quickly as possible. Not only for environmental reasons but because those beaches are so important to the local economy. And lastly, this in the Pensacola, Florida area, again, a relatively small, small slick, you might say, there gooey oil on the beach, that's the first wave, the slick is starting to move that way. Beaches here are still open, but officials are worried.

And here's why they're worried. Here is the forecast for where the oil slick will go in the next 24 hours. You see the yellow areas are the outline -- the yellow line is where you -- there are some thin sheens that have moved beyond the main mass, the deeper the color, the thicker the oil on the shore. That's right now and in the next 24 hours, but here is the forecast out 72 hours.

You see the line has move significantly more to the east including right along the panhandle coast up here in northwest Florida. As it moves this way, potential impact more, one of the big questions, of course, as it moves, will it continue to be supplied right out here at the rig site or will that cap finally work and slow dramatically the spewing of the oil?

When we come back, we'll talk to a man who is closely tracking that and see if he has any more information that we've gotten so far. Congressman Ed Markey is the Chairman of the Key House Committee investigating BP's action. Then, I'm thinking about what the government needs to do now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: It's time to go "One-on-One".

KING: One of the constant challenges since the 45 days since that explosion on the Deepwater Horizon has been getting information. I'm now joined by a member of Congress who has been pushing from the beginning for more documents and for their live camera feeds we all watch now. Democratic Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts heads the House Energy and Environmental subcommittee.

He joins me now to go "One-on-One". Mr. Chairman, thank you for your time today. Let's start first and foremost with what you are being told about this capping operation. They say it is a success so far. But we obviously still see some oil coming out. How successful?

REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I mean that is to be determined. I mean, success is better than it was but again, we're talking about an historic amount of oil going into the ocean. So if success is to do the best you can before a relief well is completed in August well maybe that is what's happening. But I still -- I still think it is to be determined how much oil they're actually capturing and how much is still going into the Gulf.

KING: That's one of the greater frustrations I'm sure for you and certainly for us in the media from both BP and the government. We go hours sometimes between getting information. They say they're getting perhaps a thousand barrels or so a day coming up now and they're going to close those vents eventually and they hope to then capture more. But do you get information on any more timely basis than we get whether it is from BP or the government?

MARKEY: I do not. Again, I pressed hard, and that's why I insisted that BP put up that spill cam so that we could have independent scientist evaluating the size of this spill. And we now know that the best estimate is between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels per day. So, if they have figures out a way to capture 1,000 additional barrels per day, that's good, but it still leaves a lot of additional, unaccounted for, oil going into the gulf.

KING: It raises the question of trust in the sense of as we wait to hear new numbers, should we trust them when we get them? And I'm -- so I'm raising a document that you put up on your Web site. This is from the very early days and it says BP had estimates that maybe it would be a little more than 1,000 barrels a day, maybe it would be a little over 5,000 barrels a days, but perhaps it would be somewhere in the ballpark of 15,000 barrels a day. Yet, in those early conversations, they were talking about the one to five range and they conveniently, I will say, left this range out. So, if you can't trust what they said then, can you trust what they say now?

MARKEY: I don't. I think that's why they have to be closely supervised from get-go. In that first week they already had that estimate that you're referring to, 1,000 to 14,000 barrels per day. They kept saying publicly it was only 1,000 barrels per day. Well, that is going to elicit a completely different response, the amount of chemicals that you have to shoot into the ocean, the amount of boom that you need to protect the beaches. And so by this point, 45 days later, 46 days late, BP just has no credibility because it's obvious that the lawyers were telling them early on to find ways to limit liable.

KING: To follow up with that point, the attorney general talked this week about his criminal investigation, the president has said he wants to bring anyone accountable whether it's a criminal charge or a civil charge. If you look through the documents that your committee and others in Congress have assembled, there were warning signs about the rig going back a period of several months, not just in the 48 hours before the explosion, but going back several months. What is your conclusion? Do you think this was negligence, this was stupidity or do you think this was criminal?

MARKEY: You have to go back before that. They certified the rig could not sink. They certified they could handle a spill of 250,000 barrels per day. They couldn't. And so, this is a whole pattern where BP downplayed, low-balled what the worst-case scenario was, and we will not know the exact scenario of what happened in the hours, the days and the weeks immediately preceding, but I think there's a good reason to believe that we still haven't got anywhere near the full story and that's why I think that Attorney General Holder is right to gather all evidence and to put a team together because a crime against nature has been committed. And we have to make sure that people are held accountable.

KING: Mr. Chairman, thanks for your time.

MARKEY: Thank you.

KING: Take care, sir.

President Obama's just passed his 500th day in office. Next, you get to make your case on how he's doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: This is part of the show where we introduce you to the most important person you don't know, and every Friday it's you. As part of our commitment to bring you into the conversation, we always read our FaceBook postings, our tweets, comments sent to our blog. And every Monday we ask you question and then give you all week to make your case by posting a video at our Web site, CNN.com/JohnKingUSA. This week's question: How do you rate president Obama's first 500 days in office? Here's a sampling of what you had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUNITA SIMMONS, LONG ISLAND, NY: I'm concerned about what he's going to do with the offshore drilling being that they had that big accident in the Gulf of Mexico.

JOHN PHILO, DETROIT, MI: I feel he's been afraid to make structural changes to generate basic fairness in this economy and to rein in corporate control. He's been too timid.

KEVIN WELLS, BROOKLYN, NY: I don't think he's doing anything for the community. I think he really doing more for other countries than what he's supposed to be doing here.

JOSH WALLACE, TRAVERSE CITY, MI: I'm happy with what he's done just because I trust him and feel good about what he's doing.

SUSAN HUDAK, WASHINGTON, DC: Actually, I'm a Republican; however, Obama's done an OK job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: All right. Let's bring into the conversation three people who are just about to upload videos until they were told we'd invite them right here. Erick Erickson, CNN contributor and the editor of RedState.com, he joins us from Atlanta. Here in studio, with me, Republican strategist Robert Traynham and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona.

Erick to you first. Here's your chance. What were you going to say in your video about the president's 500-day mark?

ERICK ERICKSON, REDSTATE.COM: You know, he's become Jimmy Carter faster than Carter became Carter. All we need is some argyle sweaters and a killer rabbit.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: Succinct.

ROBERT TRAYNHAM, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Very succinct. You know, Marina and I were talking a few moments ago, I don't think the president really enjoys this job. You know, he doesn't have the gusto that Bill Clinton had or Ronald Reagan had or even George Bush had prior to September 11. It appears that president Obama is doing everything that he needs to do just to stay above water.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well look, there's no question that he is facing the most difficult crises all at once, I think that that any president ever had to face except wartime presidents, World War II, Great Depression and all of that.

Having said that, I think he's doing a terrific job in really focusing on what needs to be done. His approval ratings are decent, higher than a lot of presidents at this point in their terms, his popularity in terms of personal ratings is very high. People trust him and you saw that in the video. I think those are very good indicators about where we're going from here.

ERICKSON: You know, John, I keep waiting for the "New York Times" editorial to come out that the job is too big for one man, which only ran when Jimmy Carter was president. Apparently the job's only been too big for two people.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: All right, let's move to my stories on my radar, because one of them is one of the big challenges facing the president. The unemployment rate ticked down to 9.7 percent in May, it was 9.9 the month before. Employers added 431,000 jobs, but take a look, compared to recent months that's a wow 431,000 jobs. But, the good news isn't as good as it might look at first glance.

Take out temporary census jobs and you get a pretty anemic 41,000 jobs created in the private sector last month. And guys I want you to come in on that, but first I want you to look at it this way, too, because we look at it this way as we look across the country. How is this employment, unemployment going to play out politically. This is a wow, because if you see the black on the map, that is where unemployment rate is 10 percent or higher. And where you see purple on this map, that means it's seven percent to 9.9 percent. So it is very close to high. Only here, in the heartland, down from the Dakotas down to Nebraska, that's the light colors, that is below three percent. But look at all this black and all the dark purple, this is seven percent or higher.

If you're the president of the United States or more importantly, the Democratic Party in this midterm election year, that map says whoa.

TRAYNHAM: You are very nervous, and also going into 2012. Look John, if you take a look at that map, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, battle ground states. And if in fact the president does not win those -- well, first of all he can't win the White House without at least Ohio and defiantly Michigan or Pennsylvania. If you take a look at those states, there are a lot of blue collar Democrats, a lot of Reagan Democrats that are fiscally conservative, but also socially just a little bit more moderate than the president. He's got to win those folks back if he in fact he's going to win a second term.

CARDONA: Look, it's 41,000 jobs created in the private sector. Do we wish there were more? Of course. We also wish that when President Obama had came into office he wasn't handed $1.3 trillion deficit and 750,000 jobs being lost on a monthly basis. So, we've got it see where we've come from. We've come a long way. It's the fifth month of consecutive job creation. We absolutely need to do a lot more and the president will be the first one to say it, he's working very hard towards that.

ERICKSON: There's -- that job creation, I mean it's not just this month where the census jobs reign supreme in the job numbers, it's been other months as well. And you know, sure he inherited a large deficit from Bush, but he's expanded on it exponentially.

The problem is that a lot public, Democrats, Republicans, and importantly, Independents, think that he can't handle the economy and they're becoming -- they're looking at BP crisis and other crises and people beginning to think he can't handle the job period and that's a problem for him.

KING: Well, hang on one second, because I want to continue the conversation about the economy, but I want to add in this, because the unemployment rate is one thing people look at, another thing a lot of people look at, since we've become an investor economy, is their 401(k)s. And while the markets had started off the year great, it was clear Wall Street today was not fooled by the jobs report.

The worst than meets the eye number sparked new worries throughout the economy and across the board sell out. The Dow Industrials lost 324 points. May and now into June have been very tough, if you're one of those people who goes online everyday and checks your 401(k) balance.

TRAYNHAM: No question about it, Wall Street wanted 500 jobs in the month of May, they clearly did not get that. Here's another issue, the other issue is that sadly a lot of those jobs are not coming back. And I know Maria, I love her to death, she uses the old argument that it's the Bush administration's fault. You mentioned a few moments ago, the Obama administration has 500 days to get this right. The American people are tired of look at the past, they want to talk about the future.

CARDONA: I think you have to look at past to figure out where we are going into the future to make sure we don't make mistakes of the past.

TRAYNHAM: But Maria, if you take a look...

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: One of the huge mistakes were made of the Bush administration and you have to say that that's where we started. He didn't come in on ground zero.

KING: What are we missing?

ERICKSON: What we're missing is that China is now -- the government is orderering a slowdown in its economy. Europe is in freefall. This is only going to get worse. And these temporary jobs that are propping up the Obama administration's job numbers; they're going to go away in a few months when the census is done. By the time the election rolls around in November we're probably going to be in a worst spot than we're in today.

CARDONA: That's why the administration is focused on private sector jobs.

KING: I want to turn back to the oil spill, because one of the issues the president faced some friction on. He was well received on his trip, but one of the reasons he faced some friction is the same very issue, jobs. The president has put in place a six-month moratorium on deep water rigs out in offshore drilling. And officials down there, Democrat and Republican, are saying Mr. President we need those jobs.

The president said I'm not going to lift it until I get an answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: As difficult as it may be, it's important for us to do this right because if we don't do it right, then what you could end up saying is an even worse impact on the oil industry down here, which is so important to so many jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So, he's waiting for a commission to give him an answer, is it safe. And Erick, that could take six months maybe five, but awhile.

ERICKSON: Yeah. I got to say, I grew up in Louisiana. My dad worked on an oil platform. This is our way of life down there. I mean, this is home for me. He's destroying the economy down there. This is an overreaction on his part, because people blamed him for so long for doing nothing. So, he's not going -- doing anything that he could so solve the situation with BP, he's going overboard and he's killing an industry, he's killing a way of life. And none of these other oil companies are having this problem.

This is an accident. Accidents happen. You should not shut down the entire industry. Sure, environmentalists will be happy, but the rest of us are going to pay really huge price in higher prices for plastics, out of work in Louisiana. It's going to be bad.

TRAYNHAM: John...

CARDONA: But, you have to make sure this never happens again, that's exactly what the president is doing by putting this in place. What he did do, what he did do importantly, though, is he said, to everybody around him, that if things change, he's going to make sure that he knows what those changes are, if he is convinces this is not needed, he will change course. I think that's a very important point to make.

KING: All right, we're going to take a quick timeout. We're going to take a quick timeout because on that point, when come back in the "Play-by-Play," among the people who we'll hear from is one of the co-chairs of that commission that will tell the president that the president is waiting for before he decides not only whether to lift that moratorium, but whether to do anything else about offshore drilling.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Quick look at tomorrow's news tonight including some breaking news reported right here during this program. In a dramatic move, BP's controversial CEO Tony Hayward is handing off responsibility for the cleanup to another top company official. The company will create a new division to manage the long-term response in the Gulf of Mexico.

President Obama's just wrapping up his third visit to Louisiana since the spill. You're looking at some brand-new video just in to us that came in from today's trip. Before leaving, Mr. Obama sat down with some townspeople, fishing boat owners, telling them, "We are not going to forget the gulf, even when I'm not here, I'm thinking about you."

Since this program started, an estimated 33,000 more gallons of oil gushed out of that pipe at the bottom of the gulf.

ANNOUNCER: Here comes the "Play-by-Play."

And a heavy emphasis on the spill in our Friday night "Play-by- Play." Still with us, Democratic strategist, Maria Cardona and Republican Robert Traynham. Our Dana Bash today, had an interview with Bob Graham, former Florida senator, who is now going to be one of the co-chairmen of this commission. The president will appoint, he's named the co-chairs, he has to fill the members out, to look into what happened. Not only BP, but Bob Graham says he will look closely at White House, how did they handle the response to the spill and he took up on something Tony Hayward said yesterday when he said "I didn't have the tools in my toolbox to deal with this." Bob Graham says, well, Congress is supposed to be the oversight, maybe they should have made clear that they had those tools.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB GRAHAM, FMR U.S. SENATOR: I think that the regulatory agencies, which have that responsibility to assure that people who are going to be doing these things, putting great numbers of Americans at risk, they know what they're doing and apparently the regulatory agency didn't do its job, and now Mr. Hayward has admitted that he wasn't prepared to do the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So, do -- will this have as much bite as he says? He says he'll look at the White House, a look at the regulatory agency, he'll look at the Congress, anyone responsible for oversight, as well as looking at the industry.

TRAYNHAM: I think so. Senator Graham is someone that really crosses his "t's" and dots his "i's," as you know, John, covering the Hill, and me serving in the Senate. He is someone that will get to the bottom of this. He will point fingers where fingers need to be pointed. So, I think if anyone can get to the bottom of this, it's Bob Graham. And I think it's a very interesting point about Congress and its oversight. For many, many years, Democrats and even some Republicans were blaming the Bush administration for lax oversight, but constitutionally speaking, the Congress does have oversight of this as well and I think he brings up a very good point to see if in fact they have something to do with this.

CARDONA: I think it's true that Bob Graham is probably the perfect person to be one of the people heading this commission up. I think it's also great that the White House and this president appointed him. I think they welcome the fact that he is going to take a look at everything. Everybody wants to know what happened, how to avoid it in the future, from the president on down. So, whatever Bob Graham and the commission come up with, I think it's going to be welcome news to the White House in terms of how to make sure this never happens again. That's their priority.

KING: The biggest news tonight is BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, he will stay on as the CEO, don't get us wrong there, but he is creating a new division within the company to be headed by one of its directors, a guy named Bob Dudley, who is an American citizen, he will take over the long-term responsibility. Tony Hayward, as you all know, has become a very controversial public face of BP since the spill. We want to show you what we call Tony Hayward's greatest hits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HAYWARD, BP CEO: Everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest.

I'm sure they were genuinely ill, but whether it was anything to do with dispersants and oil or whether it was food poisoning or some other reason for them being ill. You know, there's a -- food poisoning's a bit issue when you've got a concentration of this number of people in temporary camps.

There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I want my life back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRAYNHAM: He's the main reason why Americans are so frustrated right now. The heat -- a lot of Americans are saying our president should be frustrated not only, of course, with the spill, but because over a guy like that. It's so frustrating for someone to stand up there and not really even be a part of reality. For him to say that this is a modest spill obviously is a slap in the face to all of the American public.

KING: But this is -- he was the star of that apology ad where BP says I apologize, you know, we'll take care of this.

TRAYNHAM: Mistake No. 10.

KING: Mistake No. 10, as you put it. When the president was down there today, this first meeting, everyone said of the president, what makes him angry? The president made it clear that ad made him angry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: ...got moral and legal obligations here in the gulf for the damage that has been done. And what I don't want to hear is when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they're nickel and diming fishermen or small businesses here in the gulf who are having a hard time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARDONA: I don't know if BP will ever be able to get their credibility back, but this at least was the first step in trying to go to that direction. I think importantly what the president did in pointing that out is he made everybody understand that he also was frustrated, which is something that he did throughout his trip today and I think it was a great thing for him to do. He showed emotion, he was emotive, he talked about what not only what the White House has done since day one, but he also was very emotional in terms of understanding how impactful it was to the people of Louisiana.

TRAYNHAM: The question is it too little too late? Now granted, he is the president of the United States, he's the chief executive officer, but say whatever you want about George Bush, you knew where he stands and you knew how he felt. Wanted, dead or alive, the whole swagger, you knew exactly how he felt. And the question becomes is how does the president feel about this? And it's OK to be cool, it's OK to be no drama Obama, but it's also OK to show some frustration, as well.

CARDONA: I think it's clear now how he feels. KING: Thanks for coming in on a Friday night. And if you were writing ads for BP, I don't know why you would, but if you were writing ads for BP, what would you say? Pete Dominick is out finding out answers. He'll have them when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A couple minutes away from the top of the hour. Candy Crowley sitting in for Campbell brown, tonight. Let's get a preview.

Hi, Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hey, John. Tonight we have President Obama returning to Louisiana, blasting BP's new ad campaign. We've also got the latest as the company tries to cap its oil gusher. And we're going to hone in on that new BP ad you've been seeing everywhere. Also in the gulf, work on not one, but two relief wells. We have exclusive video from the deck of the drilling rig.

And from the disappearance of Natalee Holloway to the death of a young woman in Peru. New details on murder suspect Joran van der Sloot -- John.

KING: Candy, we'll see you in a minute.

Now to our offbeat reporter, Pete Dominick. Friday night, a tough mission. Pete, if you were going to write ads for BP, what would you write?

PETE DOMINICK, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I think my ad would be hey, we shouldn't be doing ads. This is outrageous, John King, that they're paying for television and newspaper ads. I went out and asked people what they think about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

They spread doo-doo on the BP logo, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like it.

DOMINICK: You like that? Was it you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

DOMINICK: Where were you at 3:30 in the morning, sir, last night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sleeping with a clear conscience.

DOMINICK: Sir...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And her name is Robin.

(LAUGHTER)

DOMINICK: Sir, I mean, honestly, why not just take the nozzle out and spray it all over a pelican?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I'm in the city.

(BEGIN GRAPHIC)

CNN poll: 28 percent are "less likely to buy gas at BP" as a result of the spill.

(END GRAPHIC)

DOMINICK: Any guilt filling up at a British Petroleum station?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

DOMINICK: Why then did you come here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is a convenient place.

DOMINICK: And did you spread the doo-doo on the British Petroleum sign up front? Was that you? It was, in fact.

(BEGIN GRAPHIC)

Seventy percent say that spill hasn't affected their choice of gas stations.

(END GRAPHIC)

Hold on. You have a Sunoco sticker and you're at a British Petroleum gas station. Sir, that's a bit of a conflict of interest here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I put the sticker on there when they were doing that winter free fillup thing, and never won anything for it.

DOMINICK: And why don't you put a British Petroleum sticker on when they're doing the old pollute the gulf thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never had a British petroleum sticker.

DOMINICK: If you had a British Petroleum -- so, what you're telling me is you hate dolphins?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

DOMINICK: They have new advertisements.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They do?

DOMINICK: Yeah, what should they be saying in these advertisements?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clean it up. It's not good. You don't like oily food. Why would you like an oily ocean?

DOMINICK: Their ad should say hey, you hate oily tuna, we do too?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, pretty much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do they get the nerve to advertise? I don't get that.

DOMINICK: How about they apologize in the ad for advertising. British petroleum, we're sorry that we spent money on this advertisement apologizing for our terrible disaster. How about that one?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DOMINICK: John King, what do you think of my idea? We apologize for paying this ad?

KING: I think we charge you double for that ad.

DOMINICK: Either way. The spending money on these advertisements, John King, how can Americans not be outraged by that?

KING: Pete Dominick, thanks. Have a great weekend, Pete. We'll see you on Monday. We'll see where the outrage. That's all for us tonight. Candy Crowley is standing by in New York. Thanks for being with us this week. Have a great weekend. An image there, Marine One about to bring the president to Air Force One, he is on his way back from Louisiana, his third visit there. Candy Crowley starts right now.