* “People who are captured by religious extremism–male or female, old or young–have their consciences destroyed, lose their humanity and murder without blinking an eye.”–Chinese President Xi Jinping.
* “Thank God nobody is accusing us anymore of interfering in the U.S. elections. Now they’re accusing Ukraine.”–Russian President Vladimir Putin.
* “This is exactly what the Russian government was hoping for. They would pit one side of our electorate against the others. We are running out of time to stop them.”–Former White House national security aide Fiona Hill in her testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.
* “I did say to (Ambassador Gordon Sondland), ‘I think this is all going to blow up. And here we are.”–Fiona Hill.
* “Each round of GOP questioning is not meant to interrogate the witnesses … but instead to create moments that can be flipped into Fox News segments, shared as bite-sized Facebook posts or dropped into 4chan threads.”–Ryan Broderick, BuzzFeed News.
* “Today’s democracies don’t die at the hands of generals, but at the hands of elected leaders–presidents, prime ministers. Many citizens are not fully aware of what’s happening until it’s too late. I never thought I would be seeing it in the U.S.”–Steven Levitsky, Harvard political scientist and co-author of “How Democracies Die.”
* “The myth of the ‘adults in the room’ has persisted since the beginning of the (Trump) Administration, but it has never been accurate. There is no managing Donald Trump, no way to preserve one’s integrity while doing what is necessary to remain powerful in his orbit.”–Susan Glasser, the New Yorker.
* “The reasonable guess (on impeachment conviction) is Republican senators will call to let the people decide. In a divided country, this is the right call. But they should take seriously the idea of censuring (Trump) for abuse of power.”–Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.
* “Trump’s foreign policy has metastasized from bad to worse in recent months. Fighting the good fight, even while losing, might be the useful Dunkirk option in response to the Toddler in Chief–saving what can be saved in the face of overwhelming force. A wholesale exodus of policymakers would make the situation worse, not better.”–Daniel W. Drezner, professor of international politics at Tufts University.
* “I no longer share the same understanding with the (president) who appointed me, in regards to the key principle of good order and discipline.”–Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, who was recently dismissed by President Trump.
* “His cyclical urges can’t be suppressed for long.”–“Anonymous,” the author of “A Warning.”
* “The impeachment proceedings this week have shown me how far the left will go to destroy their opponents.”–U.S. Rep. Ross Spano, R-Dover.
* “Time is running out on the most important trade event of the Trump Administration.”–American Enterprise Institute scholar Derek Scissors, on the prolonged negotiations on a final congressional agreement on the revised NAFTA trade deal. Officials from Canada and Mexico have already signed off on the NAFTA replacement.
* “We very much believe that cause-based advertising has value and can help drive public conversation around important topics. But we still don’t think it should be used with the sort of primary goal of driving political or judicial or legislative or regulatory outcomes.”–Del Harvey, vice president of trust and safety at Twitter.
* “Polling is one of those things like military battles: You always refight the last war.”–Joshua D. Clinton, Vanderbilt University political scientist and member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research Committee.
* “She took the canon and broke it open.”–Oprah Winfrey, speaking at the celebration-of-life for novelist Toni Morrison.
* “For Florida, it’s working. There are people here who need health insurance, and this is their option.”–Jodi Ray, executive director of Florida Covering Kids & Families, on data released by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services showing Florida with nearly half a million people signing up for the Affordable Care Act in the first three weeks of enrollment.
* “David’s commitment to and love of the performing arts and of this community was beyond compare, and we cannot thank him enough for the impact he has made on the lives of so many. His philanthropic legacy will continue to live on our stages and inspire the hearts and minds of us all.”–Judy Lisi, CEO of the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, on the death of David A. Straz Jr.
* “The Ybor City market is growing tremendously, with a younger, vibrant demographic moving into the urban core.”–Mario Tricoci, co-founder of Chicago’s Aparium Hotel Group, which is building the four-story, $52-million Hotel Haya in Ybor City. The Haya’s opening is set for the spring of 2020.
* “It’s really about unlocking Tampa, unlocking opportunity and doing that all over the city.”–Carole Post, Tampa’s newly named administrator for development and economic opportunity.
* “This was just a fantastic year, and you’ve got to recognize that.”–Port Tampa Bay Commissioner Patrick Allman, on rewarding Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson with a 5 percent merit raise. Over the past year, the port has seen the arrival of three new weekly container ships from Asia, the completion of a deep-water channel expansion and the patronage of more than a million cruise ship passengers.
* “Rather than just trying to undercut and steal a passenger from another airline, their whole strategy is to convince people to fly that perhaps have not flown before.”–Chris Minner, TIA’s executive vice president of marketing and communications, on the rapid growth of the low-cost, Florida-based Spirit Airlines.