fishermen, some of whom the president met with yesterday. i don t want to sugarcoat this thing. this is a big mess. reporter: it s a mess spreading throughout the gulf, even as the white house tries to keep questions about its response at bay. the administration responded with all hands on deck from day one. we are prepared for the worst case scenario and we have been doing it since day one. a possible catastrophic failure from day one. the president directed from day one we spare nothing at all in terms of the effort. reporter: administration officials used day one more than a dozen times yesterday, a c chorus critic said showed seep- deep seeded criticism. the white house credits the coast guard with the immediate search rescue and response to the april 20 explosion on t the deepwater horizon rig and they say that resources were deployed before janet napolitano said