Christina Bellantoni June 17, 2010, 3:05 PM

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said this afternoon that when he briefed President Obama on Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP, the president was baffled. “He shook his head and … said, ‘I can’t understand why anybody would say that,’” Gibbs told reporters during his daily briefing.

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden had just told the press that Barton’s comments were “outrageous” and “insensitive.” Biden said Barton’s comments seemed “incredibly out of touch,” especially since the lawmaker hails from Texas, which also has been impacted by the spill. The vice president said anyone in Florida, Louisiana or Texas should disassociate themselves from Barton’s remarks.

“This is an entire way of life that’s in jeopardy,” Biden said. He said he’s surprised that for Barton would say he’s “ashamed” because the White House is being “tough an oil company who caused the problem.” Biden added, “There’s no shakedown, it’s insisting on responsible conduct, [a] responsible response to something they caused.”

Barton (sort of) apologized this afternoon after the Democrats jumped on the remarks as a political windfall.

Here’s what Biden said:

And to sit there and say that we’re being, in effect, as I understood the statement, that he was ashamed we’re being tough on an oil company who caused the problem, I mean, I — I — I — look, I just think that it’s pretty important to the people of Louisiana all the way through Florida and even in his home state of Texas that people disassociate themselves from that. That’s not the role. There’s no shakedown. It’s insisting on responsible conduct and a responsible response to something they caused.

… [T]his fund is not a ceiling. And people can back to it as many times as they can prove they have been damaged and they need help.

And the cleanup costs are all B.P.’s costs, separate, apart and above that $20 billion.

What is wrong with that?

How is that a — that a shakedown?

Transcripts courtesy of CQ-Roll Call’s legislative tracking services.

BP, Barack Obama, Gulf Coast Oil Spill, Joe Barton, Joe Biden