After weeks of the news cycle being dominated by Ukraine, things got weird this week. They kicked off with a bang, so to speak, on Sunday when Will Smith marched onto the stage at the Academy Awards and slapped Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Less than an hour later, Smith won best actor for his role in King Richard.
Later in the week, the Republicans were increasingly outraged by one of their own, Madison Cawthorn, for outlandish claims he made about cocaine and orgies in Washington, D.C., which he later admitted to exaggerating under pressure from leadership. Throw in some tried and tested President Joe Biden gaffes and these are the quotes of the week.
“Denzel [Washington] said to me a few minutes ago, ‘At your highest moment, be careful because that’s when the devil comes for you.’”
– Will Smith apologizes after slapping comedian Chris Rock onstage at the Academy Awards. Smith subsequently apologized to the academy, but not Rock, during his best actor acceptance speech.
“Keep my wife’s name out your f****** mouth.”
– What Smith initially said to Rock after slapping him.
“I take special pride in personally swinging the election away from Trump. You’re welcome.”
– Former CIA agent John Sipher clashes with Ric Grenell on social media over Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“We cannot afford for President Biden to continue his gaffe-ridden communication as we face potential threats from Putin’s aggression.
“Mr. President, have you ever heard the phrase ‘think before you speak’? It would really come in handy in keeping global peace.”
– Tennessee GOP Rep. Mark Green, a retired U.S. Army major, says President Joe Biden’s remark seemingly suggesting regime change in Russia was ill-advised.
“President Biden has become a rapid-fire gaffe machine. It hurts with our allies and gives fodder to Putin. He needs better communications discipline or he has to stay on script.”
– Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon, a retired Air Force officer, on the same remarks.
“Here’s Hollywood that’s so outraged by every little thing. Not one person got up and said, ‘Hold on, we got an out-of-control situation here.’
“How this guy was allowed to sit there for the rest of the awards, and he’s laughing it up and having a good time with his wife. What he did was he just assaulted Chris Rock.”
– Radio host Howard Stern calls out Hollywood’s double standards.
“I’m not walking anything back. The fact of the matter is I was expressing the moral outrage that I felt. … I wasn’t then nor am I now expressing a policy change.”
– President Joe Biden says he doesn’t want to walk back comments that appeared to suggest he wanted regime change in Russia.
“If the president does pursue and start to govern decisively using executive action and other tools at his disposal, I think we’re in the game.
“But if we decide to just kind of sit back for the rest of the year and not change people’s lives — yeah, I do think we’re in trouble. So I don’t think that it’s set in stone. I think that we can determine our destiny here.”
– New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez admits her party could be facing defeat in the midterm elections.
“We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership.”
– White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield on the state of paranoia in the Kremlin.
“We’re now in a new moment in this pandemic. That does not mean COVID-19 is over — it means that COVID-19 no longer controls our lives.”
– Biden touts a new chapter in the pandemic calling for more funding from Congress.
“The far Left wants another crack at what they tried and failed to do in 1991. Washington Democrats are now trying to bully this exemplary judge of 30-plus years out of entire legal subjects — or off the court entirely.”
– Kentucky GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell hits out at Democrats trying to get Justice Clarence Thomas to resign from the Supreme Court.
“I just told him he’s lost my trust, he’s gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And, you can’t just say ‘You can’t do this again.’ I mean, he’s, he’s got a lot of members very upset.”
– House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reveals he talked to North Carolina GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn about his claim he had seen colleagues use cocaine and invite him to orgies.
“I don’t get invited to the same parties Madison Cawthorn does.”
– Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz on Cawthorn.
“I identify as transgender, as a female. Now I’m 84 years old, so when you’re 84 years old, you’re not really identifying as a man or a woman — you identify as an old fart.”
– Roberta Gough, an 84-year-old local Missouri candidate who was blocked from running as a Democrat because of her past as a Republican.
“The American people aren’t stupid. … They know that prices were rising from the day that he started.”
– Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears slams Biden‘s attempts to blame energy prices on Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine
“People are making more money, they’re finding better jobs, and after decades of being mistreated and paid too little, more and more American workers have real power now to get better wages.”
– Biden on the encouraging jobs report.
“Yesterday, I authorized the release of 1 million barrels per day for the next six months from our strategic petroleum reserve. This by far is the largest release of our national reserves in our history. It is a wartime bridge.”
– Biden on releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
“I have always gone over and above the stringent ethical requirements of the Biden administration. So I hope that all of you — I’ve been working with all of you for some time — would judge me for my record and how I treat all of you both in the briefing room and otherwise.”
– White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismisses ethics concerns over reports she has signed a deal with MSNBC.
