The week marked a shifting of focus away from the likes of Ukraine to the culture wars, specifically Florida’s fight with Disney and the end of mask mandates as we know them. There was also the bizarre spectacle of Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, resembling more of a slow-motion car crash than a Hollywood blockbuster. It also ended with leaked audio of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his thoughts on former President Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. These are the quotes of the week.
“This is obviously a disappointing decision. The CDC continues recommending wearing a mask in public transit.”
– White House press secretary Jen Psaki reacts to a Florida federal judge voiding the mask mandate.
“Why is it that we can sit here in the White House briefing room with no masks, but people can’t sit in an airplane cabin with no masks?”
– Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asks Psaki about the reasoning behind the different mandate rules.
“I support President Biden’s commitment to reengaging the government of Iran in diplomacy. We should not reward Iran with sanctions relief before they demonstrate verifiable efforts towards curbing their malign influence holistically, including their nuclear ambitions, terrorism financing, and dual-use weapons development.”
– West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin raises concerns about the Biden administration’s negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE TESTIFIES SHE ‘DOESN’T RECALL’ MUCH OF JAN. 6 RIOT RUN-UP
“We’ve said from the start that our course of response should be guided by the science and data and by experts.
“When we made this announcement, the CDC said it needed 15 days to assess the impacts of an uptick in cases on hospitalizations, deaths, and hospital capacity. We still feel that is entirely reasonable.”
– Psaki says public health measures should be guided by science, data, and experts.
“I had the great pleasure of being listed as the poorest man in Congress for 36 years. I still [made] a hell of a lot more money than anybody else because I was getting a senator’s salary. No kidding. I didn’t think you should make money while you’re in office.”
– President Joe Biden wants people to pay their fair share, an old refrain.
“And you all are selling hope?”
– Twitter founder Jack Dorsey claps back at CNN.
“Lies will get you nowhere, and lies build upon lies. … I’m obsessed with the truth, so today is the first opportunity that I’ve been able to speak about this case in full.”
– Actor Johnny Depp takes the stand in his defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard.
“The mistake had to be corrected. We caught them. And they said, ‘Well, we made a little mistake.’ It wasn’t a mistake at all. It was being caught.”
– Former President Donald Trump touts the “explosive” 2020 election fraud lawsuit in Antrim County, Michigan, in a campaign call Wednesday.
“How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it’s got your leg in its jaws? That is the difficulty that the Ukrainians face.”
– British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Ukraine negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin will fail.
“Sometimes we will speak softly and carry a big Javelin.”
– Biden, paraphrasing Teddy Roosevelt, on Ukraine military aid.
“I will always condemn war. I will never support war — being myself a child of war. … I know how much emotional trauma it leaves. In Serbia, we all know what happened in 1999. In the Balkans, we have had many wars in recent history.
“However, I cannot support the decision of Wimbledon. I think it is crazy. When politics interferes with sport, the result is not good.”
– Tennis star Novak Djokovic hits out at Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players from the tournament.
“I’ll put it to you this way: No matter the outcome of this trial, the second the allegations were made against me, the accusations, the second that more and more of these things metastasized and turned into fodder for the media, once that happened, I lost then.”
– Depp says at his defamation trial that he has lost “nothing less than everything” when Heard accused him of abuse.
“It is not your fault that you had the rug pulled out from underneath you.”
– Incoming CNN CEO Chris Licht tells staffers that CNN+ is shutting down after just a month.
“Our view of this is that the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill is really crystal clear — it’s wrong. That’s our view. It is just wrong. We oppose the governor taking legal action against a company because of their opposition to that bill.”
– White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre after Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state legislature moved to strip Disney World of its self-governing status.
“Piers got caught red-handed … and the interview that I rather enjoyed doing is now in shambles.”
– Trump releases audio that appears to refute claims from Piers Morgan that Trump walked out of their interview.
“The hearings will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House.”
– Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, hints the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings will be explosive.
“The bigger issue than the Trump stuff is the stone-cold lying. It’s hard for Kevin to ask us to believe him over our own ears. It seems the NYT is going to blood-bait the speakership race with these recordings. There will be more. And the sharks will circle.”
– A conservative lawmaker speaks after leaked audio emerged of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy being caught in a lie about telling colleagues he considered calling on Trump to resign following the Capitol riot.
“Attacking Disney, threatening to harm our state’s economic powerhouse that creates so many jobs and brings in so many tourism dollars is a boneheaded move however you look at it.”
– Rep. Charlie Crist, a Florida Democrat, hits out at DeSantis for “wanting to be the king of Florida.”
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“Millions of Americans are suffering right now under President Biden and Speaker Pelosi’s big-government socialist agenda that has given us record-high inflation, with skyrocketing gas prices and a border crisis, yet the only thing the Democrat media continues to obsess over is January 6th.”
– Lauren Fine, spokeswoman for Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise, denies the No. 2 Republican in the House leaked the McCarthy call.
