Palin falsely claims, “We haven't had the assurance by the president” that stopping oil leak is “top priority”

Palin: “We haven't had the assurance by the president that that has been his top priority.” On his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly hosted Fox News contributor Sarah Palin and asked her to "[t]ell the nation tonight what you would have said, your main point in that speech." Palin responded: “Stopping the gusher. That's the number one priority of the nation. ... We haven't had the assurance by the president that that has been his top priority. Instead, what his top priority is, Bill, is cap and tax.”

Obama has called the Gulf oil spill “my top priority”

Obama from Oval Office “Make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes.” During his address from the Oval Office, which Fox News carried live, Obama stated: “Because there has never been a leak this size at this depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology. That's why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge -- a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's Secretary of Energy.” Obama added that “in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well.” He further said:

But make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.

From Obama's speech:

Because there has never been a leak this size at this depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology. That's why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge -- a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's Secretary of Energy. Scientists at our national labs and experts from academia and other oil companies have also provided ideas and advice.

As a result of these efforts, we've directed BP to mobilize additional equipment and technology. And in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that's expected to stop the leak completely.

Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it's not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.

But make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.

Obama previously called spill “my top priority.” During a May 27 press conference, Obama said: “Those who think that we were either slow on our response or lacked urgency don't know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred.” He also commented: “But here's the broad point: There has never been a point during this crisis in which this administration, up and down up the line, in all these agencies, hasn't, number one, understood this was my top priority -- getting this stopped and then mitigating the damage; and number two, understanding that if BP wasn't doing what our best options were, we were fully empowered and instruct them, to tell them to do something different.”