President Obama rips BP, Transocean, Halliburton execs a new one. ‘Ridiculous spectacle’: Obama slams BP, Transocean over Gulf oil spill | McClatchy As for Tuesday’s testimony in which companies involved passed the blame for the spill, the president said, “I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter. You had executives of B.P. and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else. The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn’t.”