* “In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail, white supremacy will not have the last word.”–President Joe Biden, speaking to victims’ families, local officials and first responders in Buffalo, N.Y.
* “At first, the Western support for Ukraine was mainly designed to defend against the invasion. It is now set on a far grander ambition: to weaken Russia itself.”–Tom Stevenson, NYT.
* “We want to know what’s out there as much as you want to know what’s out there.”–Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Lawmakers from both parties say UFOs are a national security concern.
* “Tossing the issue back to the states, as the Alito draft proposes, will not bring the country any closer to a resolution on abortion rights—it will just open up 50 new fronts in the fight.”–Ronald J. Granieri, history professor at the U.S. Army War College.
* “Ron DeSantis is the new Republican Party. … What stands out as a true departure is Mr. DeSantis’ willingness to use government power in the culture war. … Mr. DeSantis is the hottest thing in national Republican politics right now and he is doing everything to lay the groundwork, assuming he wins re-election this year, to run for president.”–Rich Lowry, National Review editor.
* “There’s two types of members of Congress. There’s performance artists and legislators. The performance artists are the ones that get all the attention, the ones you think are more conservative because they know how to say slogans real well, they know how to recite the lines that they know our voters want to hear. …We have grifters in our midst … in the conservative movement. Lie after lie after lie.”–Congressman Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas.
* “In 2020, the plan of Trump and his allies hinged ultimately on getting state legislatures to overturn the will of the voters. If past is prologue, that same strategy is likely to be central to efforts to subvert an election in the future.”–Ben Berwick, counsel at Project Democracy.
* “Something is changing among Trump supporters. … (They) need Trump’s policies, but (they) don’t need him. … ‘Trump establishment?’ That’s the sound of something shifting.”–Peggy Noonan, WSJ.
* “Nicolas Maduro is a tyrant and a thug. … Easing sanctions on Venezuela will empower Maduro and cronies, hurting Venezuelans who are struggling for freedom and democracy.”–Florida Democratic congresswoman Val Demings, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
* “In the United States, rather than increasing trust in government, the relatively mild pandemic public-health measures instituted by the CDC and state governments only inflamed America’s ‘freedom’ fetish.”–Nina Burleigh, The Nation.
* “No elected officials will be more pivotal to protecting democracy—or subverting it—than secretaries of state. … (They) own the bully pulpit on voting, and they control the machinery of elections.”–University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade.
* “(You’ve got) a country where ‘Critical Race Theory’ is banned by law, but you can learn ‘great replacement theory’ by turning on Fox. Where voting keeps getting harder and gun ownership easier.”—Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.
* “(Buffalo shooter) Payton Gendron isn’t mentally ill. He isn’t ‘troubled,’ nor is he just a misguided teen. … The truth is that he’s simply hateful in the same way that right-wing politics have instructed him to be.”–Brian Broome, Washington Post.
* “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”–President James Madison.
* “Recession risks are high. … For the economy to navigate through without suffering a downturn, we need some very deft policymaking from the Fed and a bit of luck.”–Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
* The fight over congressional districts now shifts from the statehouse to the courthouse.”–Ben Diamond, a St. Petersburg Democrat and a member of the Florida House.
* “The hotel business has been around since Mary and Joseph couldn’t get a room, but the landscape has changed dramatically.”–Julianne Corlew, vice president and business partner of Mainsail Lodging & Development. Mainsail is partnering with USF for student hospitality training.
* “It’s clearly a special place, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead such a vibrant campus.”–Christian Hardigree, newly named regional chancellor of USF St. Petersburg.