* “It’s not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s pretty close.”–Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on the Trump Administration’s endorsement of a proposed partnership with Russia on cybersecurity.
* “It won’t happen.”–President Donald Trump, when first apprised earlier this year of a possible North Korean ICBM test launch.
* “North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life? Hard to believe that South Korea and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”–Donald Trump, after North Korea’s recent launch of its first ICBM.
* “Self-restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war.”–Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of troops in Seoul.
* “Global action is required to stop a global threat.”–Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
* “Donald Trump’s election was possible because both political parties mistakenly decided several decades ago to have binding primary elections determine presidential nominations. Rather than having party leaders vet candidates for competency and sanity, as most democracies do, our parties turned the nomination process into a reality show in which the closest things to vetting are a clap-o-meter and a tracking poll.”–Eitan D. Hersh, associate professor of political science at Tufts University.
* “It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters. Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the president had never done so. … We will keep doing our job. He should start doing his.”–CNN statement.
* “I think the American people elected somebody who’s tough, who’s smart, and who’s a fighter, and that’s Donald Trump.”–White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
* “We’re okay; the country’s not.”–Joe Scarborough, co-host of the Trump-targeted “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.
* “Trump has moved his shallow kiddie wading pool of gossip and ridicule from Trump Tower to the White House, where it is so outlandishly out of place. … Before he got to D.C., Trump was used to media that could be bought, sold and bartered with. He is not built for this hostile environment and it shows in his deteriorating psychological state.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.
* “My problem isn’t just that the president is a lying, petty, hateful and incompetent man. It’s also that millions of Americans see that–they see it–and do not care.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.
* “To me, only (Fox News) has the power to convince conservatives that, if one or more of the investigations raises the question of impeachment, it’s in the best interest of the party and the conservative agenda to dump Trump. … Right now (Sean) Hannity might have more power over an impeachment process than Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell.”–Robert Leonard, news director for radio stations KNIA/KRLS, Des Moines, Iowa.
* “This cake is baked, ladies and gentlemen. They intend to bring a charge against our president despite a total lack of evidence.”–Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, referencing special counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and fired FBI Director James Comey at a Tampa book signing.
* “Just the number of environmental rollbacks in this time frame is astounding. (EPA Administrator Scott) Pruitt has come in with a real mission.”–Richard Lazarus, professor of environmental law at Harvard University.
* “In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance.”–Former President Barack Obama.
* “One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, ‘Mr. President, you will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy.'”–Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
* “It’s up to us to speak up against the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites and media elites. These are America’s greatest domestic threats.”–Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA.
* “Airplanes do not fly through a vacuum. The atmosphere is being modified by climate change.”–Paul D. Williams, meteorology professor at the University of Reading in Britain, on how climate change can affect aviation.
* “We desperately need to revive a second route to the middle class for people without four-year college degrees, as manufacturing once was.”–Robert Reich, professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley and former labor secretary in the Clinton Administration.
* “As we all know, being a mayor is the toughest job in politics. People hold you accountable for what happens.”–Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
* Florida right now is on the cutting edge of ‘stand your ground.’ We quite frankly don’t yet know what the impact will be.”–Stetson University Law Professor Charles Rose, commenting on revisions in the law that shifts the burden of proof to the state.
* “I think continuing the acquisition of private property is tremendously destabilizing to the existing communities.”–Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization board member Trent Green, on what some community members are calling a DOT “land grab” for toll lanes and other aspects of transportation expansion plans that are supposed to be on hold.
* “Tampa has been and will continue to be a corridor of technological and health care innovation, which creates a strong base for talent and collaborative partnerships with other adjacent industries.”–Paul Berman, president of Corin USA, an orthopedic device manufacturer that is hiring 100 employees at its Tampa headquarters.
* “I think Tampa’s in a position now that we are attractive to the best candidates around the country for this job.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, in announcing that he will open a national search to find a successor to Police Chief Eric Ward, who recently–and unexpectedly–announced his retirement.
* “Picasso is the ultra male, constantly cheating on his wives, while Dali is seen as sort of the consummate celibate, cheating with nobody. The idea that he could have an affair that led to a child seems totally out of character.”–Peter Tush, curator of education at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.