Tuesday Short Cuts
Notable quotables from Jill Biden, AOC, Tim Kaine, Kamala Harris, Nate Jackson, and more.
The BIG Lies
“History teaches us that democracies don’t disappear overnight. They disappear slowly, subtly, silently. A book ban. A court decision. A ‘don’t say gay’ law. Before World War II, I’m told, Berlin was the center of LGBTQ’s culture in Europe. One group of people loses their rights, and then another, and then another, until one morning you wake up and you no longer live in a democracy.” —First Lady Jill Biden
“I think Attorney General [Letitia] James has been handling this case with tremendous skill. … This is not about party. This is not about politics. This is about corruption and criminality. We’re talking about an individual who ordered essentially a terrorist attack on the Capitol of the United States in order to retain power.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
“Remember, during the pandemic Donald Trump told us to inject ourselves with bleach. He said there’s nothing to worry about if you do that.” —Joe Biden
Theater of the Absurd
“I don’t think it’s an invasion. It is an immigration crisis. … I think you gotta be careful throwing around words like ‘invasion.’ It was that kind of wording that led the deranged guy to go shoot up the Tree of Life synagogue.” —Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA)
“There’s only so much that [Biden] can do through executive action.” —National Security Council spokesman John Kirby (“REMINDER: Biden took 94 executive actions in his first 100 days to dismantle border security — and could reverse them at any time.” —RNC)
For the Record
“We’re closing in on a million entries this fiscal year alone. That number’s a large number, but what’s keeping me up at night is the 140,000 known ‘gotaways.’ … Border security is a big piece of national security, and if we don’t know who is coming into our country and we don’t know what their intent is, that is a threat.” —Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens
“When you hear that under Biden over 9 million people have illegal entered America remember it took only 4 terrorists to carry out a massacre in Moscow.” —Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Baghdad Bob
“It is clear that President Biden’s economic plan is working to grow the middle class.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Useful Idiots
“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake. Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go. And we’re looking at about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there, most of them.” —Kamala Harris
“What we are seeing here, I think, with a forced famine, is beyond our ability to deny or explain away. There is no targeting of Hamas in precipitating a mass famine of a million people, half of whom are children. … The actions of Hamas do not justify forcing … hundreds of thousands of people to eat grass as their bodies consume themselves. … We are talking about collective punishment, which is injustifiable [sic].” —Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Political Futures
“I think the president is worried about losing Minnesota and Michigan. He’s getting a lot of pressure from the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party. … I think he’s trying to have it both ways — still stick with Israel to some extent, but also do things that signal to these people and try to appease them.” —Sen. Marco Rubio
Friendly Fire
“A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females [directing the Democrat campaign messaging]. ‘Don’t drink beer. Don’t watch football. Don’t eat hamburgers. This is not good for you.’ The message is too feminine. ‘Everything you’re doing is destroying the planet. You’ve got to eat your peas.’” —Democrat strategist James Carville
Re: The Squabbling Republicans
“House Republicans should elect Marjorie Taylor Greene as speaker and see how many incredible things she does with what will soon be a one-seat majority. … We’re left wondering just how many Republicans would prefer to be in the minority because screaming that Washington is broken is a heck of a lot easier than fixing it.” —Nate Jackson
And Last…
“Every single day we wake up to a new crisis, to a new conflict. Everything has gone on fire since the time Joe Biden took over.” —Sen. Marco Rubio
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