* “There is no sense wasting our time seeking production cuts. That will not happen.”–Ali bin Ibrahim al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s petroleum minister, in ruling out the possibility of participating in an oil production freeze with Russia, Venezuela and Qatar.
* “He’s like a modern guy in the context he’s living. He represents the face of change in the party.”–Former Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, in referring to Miguel Díaz-Canel, 55, first vice president of Cuba’s Council of State and the supposed face of Cuba’s post-Castro future.
* “It’s an election year, and candidates can’t stop speaking about our country’s problems (which, of course, only they can solve). That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.”–Investor Warren Buffett.
* “My party has gone bat—t crazy.”–Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
* “The party of Lincoln is now the party of Donald Trump.”–Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
* “U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly is about to return to Earth after spending an entire year in space. Then he saw Donald Trump’s poll numbers and said, ‘You know, I’m good up here.'”–Conan O’Brien.
* “It would be very safe to just fall in line and get behind Marco Rubio, but we have to recognize what we are seeing in the polls is real. The voters are speaking, and Trump is resonating.”–U.S. Rep. David Jolly, R-Indian Shores.
* “The fact that Sen. Rubio trails Mr. Trump by double digits is an indication not so much of Trump campaigning in the state of Florida but the fact that Floridians watch television.”–Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
* “We hit our stride in Nevada. Our message of breaking all barriers is really beginning to take hold.”–Hillary Clinton
* “Despite what you hear, we don’t need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great. But, we do need to make America whole again.”–Hillary Clinton.
* “I can guarantee you that the one person that Hillary and Bill Clinton do not want to see on that stage come next September is Donald Trump.”–New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, in endorsing Trump for president.
* “We have a con artist as the front-runner in the Republican Party.”–Marco Rubio.
* “Trump, who was a big-government liberal Democrat before he was a conservative Republican, has the upturned jutted jaw, the celebration of ‘energy,’ and the flirtation with violence and torture that characterized the Italian who was a radical socialist until he decided he was a fascist. Trump, however, is as American as Huey Long.”–George Will, Washington Post.
* “I think he (Trump) certainly is a controversial figure. I think we need someone who can unify the party, as opposed to divide the party. We can’t have a nominee be an albatross around the down-ballot races.”–Sen. Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas.
* “What’s driving this is Apple’s desire to persuade the global market, and particularly the China market, that the FBI can’t just stroll in and ask for data.”–James Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
* “I think the more skin the U.S. has in the game–diplomatically, commercially and at the individual level–the more difficult it will be to undo things.”–Sarah Stephens, executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, on the evolving business relationship between the U.S. and Cuba.
* “The ($250 million) Enterprise Fund is at zero.”–State Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, chairman of the House-Senate budget conference committee.
* “The utility and performance and benefits of robotic surgery have come under scrutiny in the last four or five years, and there are those that believe robotic surgery adds a lot of time and a lot of costs in the operating room but no benefit to patients compared to other surgical techniques that are much longer-lasting. Robotics itself–the bloom is off the rose a little bit.” Ed Funai, chief operating officer and vice president for administration and strategic development for USF Health.
* “One of the good things about this is we can do it for six months, have law enforcement report back, and if it’s not having the intended effect, fix it.”–Tampa City Councilman Harry Cohen on the council’s plan to decriminalize the use of small amounts of marijuana.
* “Florida is not an easy state to develop in elsewhere outside of Tampa. We’re so thankful to be here in Tampa for that reason.”–Ron Wanek, founder of Ashley Furniture, at the grand opening of Ashley Global Retail’s new e-commerce center and corporate offices in Ybor City.
* “We spent nearly three years illustrating our enormous transportation deficit and the dire straits of our transportation network. We are weeks away from scheduling a referendum, and we are still chasing our tails.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan.
* “We are taking a deep dive in all subjects. As an educator, you really want to make sure the product delivered in the school meets the needs of students so they don’t have to go for tutoring help outside of our school system.”–Hillsborough County School District chief of staff Alberto Vazquez, on the district’s re-evaluation of the SpringBoard program.
* “I’m encouraged because Mr. Sternberg seems to be encouraged. He seems positive and, as a result, I’m positive.”–MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, on stadium input from Rays owner Stu Sternberg.