Memo to President: Do Not Trust BP

Memo to President: Do Not Trust BP

Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel appears on Real Time with Bill Maher warning the president to regulate the oil industry and not vice versa.

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Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel appears on Real Time with Bill Maher with Andrew Sullivan, Van Jones, Judd Apatow and Paul Begala to discuss BP’s latest talking points.

When Andrew Sullivan points out BP’s 760 OSHA violations (about 38 times that of other oil companies combined) vanden Heuvel agrees BP’s numerous violations puts the corporation in a class of its own. It’s clear that the government must be the ones to regulate the oil corporations and not vice versa.

“I hope the president understands you cannot trust an oil operation to run this operation,” she says.  “It’s like putting Dick Cheney in charge of human rights.”

—Clarissa León

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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