* “The risk of infection for Americans remains low, and with these and our previous actions we are working to keep the risk low.”–Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, in announcing that America will be temporarily barring entry to the U.S. of foreign nationals believed to be a risk of transmitting the coronavirus. Americans returning from China’s Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, will be required to undergo 14 days of quarantine.
* “While we still have to be enormously vigilant about terror, there are still challenges all across the world, the Chinese Communist Party presents the central threat of our times. … China wants to be the dominant economic and military power of the world, spreading its authoritarian vision for society and its corrupt practices worldwide.”–Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
* “Russia in my view has become the most important partner of Maduro. A multilateral approach on sanctions is critical.”–Carlos Vecchio, the Venezuelan ambassador to the U.S. for Juan Guaido.
* “It’s worth remembering that liberalism is not just struggling in America, with our Electoral College and right-tilting Senate; it is struggling all around the world. Which, again, suggests that American liberals are fortunate to have Trump as their Great Foe. If he were merely as disciplined and competent as (the UK’s) Boris Johnson or (Hungary’s)Viktor Orban, to choose leaders with whom he has a few things in common, he would be coasting to re-election.”–Ross Douthat, New York Times.
* “In constructing their defense, the president’s supporters essentially tried to have it both ways in the Ukraine case: They insisted there was no quid pro quo demand for Biden investigations made while withholding aid from Ukraine, and that it would have been entirely proper even if there were.”–Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal.
* “The spectacle of White House censors deciding, without any real constraint, whether to permit a former government official to publish a manuscript critical of the president should provoke alarm.”–Jameel Jaffer and Ramya Krishan, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
* “(The framers of the Constitution) put their faith in checks and balances. We are left with a president unchecked and a system dangerously unbalanced.”–Ruth Marcus, Washington Post.
* “It was exactly what Nancy Pelosi feared would happen before she was reluctantly drawn into the show trial.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.
* “Support for the president remains rock solid in small-county and rural America. … cultural values and class are big, if not bigger, factors than the economy in determining political attitudes. Trump supporters are supporters as much because of the president’s anti-elite rhetoric, his fight against undocumented immigrants and what they see as defense of traditional values as any substantive achievement.”–Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal.
* “We perceive Donald Trump and his corruption to be an existential threat to the county. (Republicans) perceive the deep state and the liberal media to be an existential threat to the country.”–U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
* “In 1992, partisanship was much more elastic than it is now.”–Bill Clinton campaign adviser James Carville.
* “One of the things that has happened in the last, almost four decades in public life is you watch people make a gargoyle of your life.”–Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
* “I haven’t had chips in about10 1/2 months.”–NASA astronaut Christina Koch, on what she craves on her Feb. 6 return from the International Space Station, where she’s been since March.
* “There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated.”–Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
* “Our marketing has become about how unique and how different we are. We don’t want to compete against beach destinations or theme park destinations.”–Santiago C. Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, on the ripple effects of “Gasparilla season.”
* “The heart of the experience around Super Bowl will be in downtown Tampa along the Riverwalk … taking advantage of all the great venues we have.”–Rob Higgins, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Super Bowl LV Host Committee. The Super Bowl will be played at Raymond James Stadium next year.
* “I think this is noble, worthy and long overdue.”–Tampa City Council member Guido Maniscalco, on the need for a ban on one-use plastics.
* “I often say, our city is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in my entire lifetime, not only above ground but below, and it’s our commitment to financial excellence that will help carve the path.”–Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
* “Our focus is on the Sister City concept, and we will work with all those who believe it is an idea that merits exploration and consideration.”–Statement from the Tampa Bay Rays to the city of St. Petersburg.