CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

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BASH: You know, Tony Hayward has in many ways become the poster child of this and in many ways the villain of this. Do you see him as the villain of this BP explosion?

REP. BART STUPAK (D), MICHIGAN: Look, he's a corporate guy. At the end of the day, he's going to put his best foot forward. It's not going to ring true with me or the American public. And we've got a mess on our hands, a disaster, a catastrophic disaster for our environment and those people who lost their lives. He's just going to say I'm sorry, it won't happen again. That's not good enough. That's not good enough.

BASH: It almost feels like he's going to be facing a firing squad, not necessarily a congressional hearing.

STUPAK: Well --

BASH: It's going to be tough?

STUPAK: Oh, yes. Yes. Members are angry. Members are frustrated. Members are -- they're going to take his hide off.

BASH: What about you?

STUPAK: As they should.

I will be fair but firm.

BASH: I saw somewhere that you were quoted as saying I hope he's sliced and diced.

STUPAK: But fairly sliced and diced.

BASH: Right. So these are documents that you have uncovered.

STUPAK: Correct.

BASH: One employee calling the Deepwater Horizon well, crazy well, another a nightmare well.

STUPAK: Correct. Correct.

These are the top engineers. So, when you say things like this in this corporate, this culture, what does that mean? Oh, well, so you got a crazy well, we've got a runaway well, it's a nightmare. Keep moving forward, cut corners, get it done. Get the nightmare over with. It created a bigger nightmare for the American people.

BASH: But you think that Tony Hayward -- he bears the ultimate responsibility?

STUPAK: Yes, he's head of -- he's head of the corporation. He goes down with the ship, as they say.

BASH: So this is an interview that he did with Sky News. Tony Hayward.

STUPAK: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HAYWARD, BP CEO: I think the environmental impacts of this disaster will be very, very modest. I think we'll be seen as a textbook example of how to do an emergency response. It is unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STUPAK: Well, this is not modest and even if it was in May (ph), it was not modest. First of all, they couldn't tell so much oil is coming out -- textbook example of how to do a cleanup? They can't handle 5,000 gallons or 5,000 barrels let alone 60,000 barrels we think it is now.

Tony Hayward and BP will be held accountable. When it's all said and done, I want him to go back to Sky News and say, oh, this is a textbook example of the way it should be done. It's a textbook example of how things should not be done.

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