Daylight Saving kicked into gear on Sunday, March 14, but we didn’t lose any sleep with the week that followed, which has been full of controversial moments and comments, dominated by a border crisis that isn’t a crisis and President Biden’s choice words for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Here are some of the best quotes of the week:
“Do not come … It’s do not come because it is not safe to take the journey, it is not safe in a time of pandemic to arrive at the border. Families and single adults are being expelled. Let us rebuild, if I may, a safe, orderly way for you to apply for humanitarian relief under the laws of our country. That is who we are. It is do not come, but while we are rebuild[ing] the system that was dismantled by the prior administration, we will make the conditions as safe as possible for the children, whom we are not expelling.”
— Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, asking migrants to wait weeks to months before traveling to the southern border
“The Department of HHS is in the process of distributing and administering hundreds of millions of vaccines. Mr. Becerra has never so much as distributed french fries at McDonald’s.”
— Sen. Ted Cruz, the day before Xavier Becerra was confirmed as HHS secretary
“When it comes to the Harris-Biden relationship, everyone in Washington knows that every time Kamala Harris shakes the hand of Joe Biden, she’s checking his pulse.”
— Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz speaking to Fox News’s Sean Hannity about Biden’s health, a day before the president fell up the stairs boarding Air Force One
Biden: “He will pay a price … We had a long talk, he and I, when we — I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you, and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.”
George Stephanopoulos: “So you know Vladimir Putin. You think he’s a killer?”
Biden: “Mmm-hmm, I do,” Biden replied.
— Biden, when asked by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos what he thinks about Putin
.@JoeBiden refers to @KamalaHarris as “President Harris.” pic.twitter.com/UQyewoJUyf
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 18, 2021
“When President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona …”
— Biden suffers a verbal slip-up when speaking about the country’s vaccination efforts
“There’s an old saying in Texas about ‘find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. You know, we take justice very seriously.”
— Texas Rep. Chip Roy during a hearing on violence against Asian Americans
“Some Republicans have begun to try and chop down the Biden tree little by little. But they’re only ax marks in the tree, they’re not taking the whole tree down.”
— Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos on why Republicans are better waiting until Biden’s net approval rating decreases more.
“We need to know exactly who is coming across that border and what their intent is. And how we get there is a policy decision, but it has homeland defense and national security implications.”
— U.S. Northern Command’s Gen. Glen VanHerck
“I take that cotton bag to Whole Foods, I do, but I know it’s virtue-signaling.”
— Rep. Dan Crenshaw during a hearing Thursday on a sweeping climate bill known as the CLEAN Future Act
