* “Walking away from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) turns our back on America’s closest allies. … The consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.”–Former President Barack Obama on the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Iran nuclear agreement.
* “If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends.”–Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
* “Two thousand years from now, historians may be lecturing on Trump the way they now discuss, say, the challenge to Roman institutions from Caligula.”–Nicholas Kristof, New York Times.
* “The vast majority of the people that move illegally into the United States are not bad people. They’re not criminals. … But they’re also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States, into our modern society. … They don’t speak English. … They don’t integrate well; they don’t have skills.”–White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
* “Our company has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons these last few days, and our reputation has been damaged. There is no other way to say it: AT&T hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a big mistake.”–AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.
* “If not for the Trump and Cohen peer circle, white-collar prisons would be sitting empty. And this all happened before Trump and Cohen elevated their moral associations even higher by entangling with Russian oligarchs.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you as required by law. If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.”–Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in explaining the government’s “zero tolerance” border enforcement policy.
* “I would not allow the CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal. I would absolutely not permit it.”–Gina Haspel, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA.
* “I believe in the separation of powers, a free press to report without fear or favor, and free to infuriate politicians–including me–as they do.”–Sen. John McCain.
* “There is depth. There is talent. However, there is almost no original reporting. The right has stopped being investigative, stopped being reporters and journalists. It’s occurring precisely at a time when vigorous reporting is most desperately needed.”–Ben Howe, Daily Beast.
* “A tsunami of lies isn’t aimed at getting people to believe what the propagandist is saying. Rather, it’s to induce chronic disbelief, or an indifferent shrug. Who knows what to believe? Who cares? What is truth?”–Charles J. Sykes, Weekly Standard.
* “NRA propaganda hearkens back to an imagined past of white picket fences and financial security. In doing so, it whitewashes the history of guns in American life.”–Jennifer Carlson, Jacobin Magazine.
* “Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own.”–U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in the opinion that struck down a federal law banning sports betting.
* “He has unlimited wealth. I have to be smarter, faster, quicker.”–Sen. Bill Nelson, referring to Rick Scott’s financial wherewithal.
* “Part of what I tried to do was reassure them that Tampa is interested in that relationship. That we don’t build walls; we build bridges. And that we are there for the long run. So block out the white noise, the tweets, because that doesn’t reflect America’s relationship with Mexico and certainly not Tampa Bay’s relationship with Mexico.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who was part of the recent Global Tampa Bay trade mission to Mexico.
* “Fortune 500 company relocations are really rare. The fact that they chose Hillsborough County is just another testament to the momentum that the city and the county is experiencing right now.”–Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. president and CEO Craig Richard, on the announcement that Minnesota-based Mosaic Co. will be moving its headquarters to Hillsborough County.
* “Green spaces and public parks are the great equalizers. You don’t have to buy a ticket. You just come with your family and create memories.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn.
* “We have to start asking questions that maybe we have never asked ourselves before. This really implies that the whole system has to change. The whole structure in our organization has to change.”–Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins, in unveiling a plan to address the 49 district schools with a history of low grades and neglect.
* We don’t need to double down on the bad decisions made in the 1960s to put asphalt through urban cores and destroy those communities.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp.
* “San Francisco is a very, very cool place, but oftentimes it’s hard to live there because of the sheer size of it and the cost.”–Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp. President J.P. DuBuque, on the rationale behind pitching St. Pete in California. It was the EDC’s first ever business-recruiting trip.
* “I think (the Rays) have to move to Tampa. If you’re staying in the area, it has to move somewhere over there.”–Evan Longoria.