Government Officials

"The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the “public interest.”"

"When you look at the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel, um, it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible. Uh, as you've indicated, there are, y'know, avenues here for the FCC so there are some ways in which I need to be a little bit, uh, careful: because we could be called ultimately to be a judge on some of these claims that come up. But I don't think this is an isolated incident. You go back to Representative Swalwell, he had a tweet out last week, where he was saying that, y'know, emphasizing that Charlie Kirk's killer was "a straight white male from Republican family that voted for Donald Trump." In some quarters there's a very concerted effort to try to lie to the American people.about the nature, as you indicated, one of the most significant, uh, newsworthy public interest acts that we've seen in a long time. In what appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican motivated person. If that's what happened here with his conduct, that's really really sick."

"There's actions we can take on licensed broadcasters. It's long past the time that...Comcast and Disney say 'We're not gonna run Kimmel anymore...because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibly of fines or licensed revocation from the FCC."

"“In 2021, many of the majority of these voices were drowned out by the monster minority machine that showed up yelling, screaming, and accusing, and in some case threatening violence. So the result was the reasonably minded majority that also wanted choice, equity, and opportunity for their children and families, were reticent to voice their concerns.”"

"“…you move two steps forward, you come ten steps back…it happened in Reconstruction and after the election of President Obama. But it also happens with people in power feel threatened.”"

"Censoring lawful speech based on its content? I'm with the First Amendment. I'm a no."

"“You are talking about the people who were so easily manipulated, who vote back and forth, vote against their interests, or don’t understand that addressing issues of inequity take time to demonstrate success….kind of like the townspeople in a Shakespearean play. You know, first we praise Caesar and now we want to kill him.”"

"“I’ve read all of [Angela Sailor’s] works, but I’m not quite sure exactly where she stands. She is not a DEI thought-leader or practitioner. She has a lot of political experience on the conservative side but given her support of HBCUs and her stated priority of helping the Black community, I’m not quite sure of her thoughts on a lot of things. It’s a little bit confusing…I certainly wish her well, because if she does well, then Virginia does well. But to say that I’m nervous…is an understatement.”"

"“Governor Youngkin, if he was truly interested in repairing Virginia’s failing schools, he can use critical race theory to interrogate the policies that were used with redlining and Jim Crow laws and all the historical antecedents that get us to failing schools.”"

"“…because of all of our incomplete knowledge of race and racism, it was like, well, let me just give this tall and somewhat attractive guy in a red vest a chance – he seems harmless.”"

"“…there’s the now defunct ideology, “if you’re explaining you’re already losing.” Well guess what, we lost anyway by NOT explaining…You’ve got to be able to define critical race theory and use it in a sentence, just like in third grade”"

"Who, in your view, should have the power to draw the line between a “lie” and “free speech”? Government officials that want to stay in political power or the people that can hold them accountable ?"

"“We didn’t talk about it, we did not help people or educate people on how to be ambassadors for this work, or how to understand it from a larger systemic lens. And so our work was vulnerable to attacks and weaponization…it was almost like there was a fear, well we can’t talk about it because we’re in the middle of a gubernatorial election.”"

"“Even though we were told not to talk about [ critical race theory] because we would lose, it was like, well, we didn’t talk about it and we still lost.”"

"“Most people outside of the state government bubble, like the suburban soccer mom, didn’t know about the One Virginia mission or online tool kit, which has now been completely erased from the internet. ONE Virginia was about bringing us together, making Virginia work better for all of us…and was not about division.”"

"“…now, bringing up this difficult history is diagnosed as a divisive concepts that White parents don’t want spoken about…but not because they don’t want their children to bear the brunt of this factual history, but because they don’t want to be reminded about it. Members of the monster minority machine would purport that teaching about this stuff would make students hate their country. I disagree. Perhaps it would teach the next generation of where we got it wrong.”"

"” We need more people who respect and affirm diversity, equity and inclusion to run for political office at all levels. We also need people – commonsense reasonable people and elected officials and their communications partners- to speak up and not be so afraid to speak up at school board meetings, in the media, in the local towns square, at the YMCA, grocery store, and on the campaign trail. Because right now, the narrative is being controlled by a minority monster machine…a very small group of parents who have the ability and funding to be loud and apparently get to be threatening to people. And it goes unchecked. This has resulted in the normalization of hating anyone with a different ideology and even political cyberbullying of a 17-year-old.”"

"“…the only thing that gets covered in the media is the sensational hot sexy stuff like, you know like, Robert E. Lee coming down to Richmond or at the U.S. Capitol…The only thing most of the press was interested in was talking about Ralph Northam’s yearbook photo, Robert E. Lee coming down in Richmond, and what was in the time capsule, right?”"

"“I don’t think we went too fast. I think we didn’t build people’s capacity to talk about the work. I think that was the main issue, we just didn’t talk about the work in a way that helped people understand how it was all connected”"

"“…ok parents, member of the minority monster machine who is against critical race theory, look at this language in the Virginia code that says Black people shall not marry white people. Is it ok that we take that out? Because that’s actually ‘critical race theory’ in action.”"

"“I call it a Monster Minority Machine…because these folks leading these tirades are NOT the majority of voices in Virginia, but they are the loudest. In fact, the majority of the voices in Virginia are demanding MORE African American history taught in schools.”"

"“…this false narrative [on the Governor’s Schools] was fueled by a monster minority machine that emboldened and really gaslighted members of a diverse Asian community to champion these issues.”"

"“We desperately need genuine diversity, equity, and inclusion to allow many of us to access ‘opportunity.’ That’s why it’s so important people understand there’s a return on investment for it.”"

"“The world is bending towards more diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, if Virginia wants to remain competitive across all those sectors, we’ve got to continue the work of One Virginia.”"

"“Now you see an attempt to undo, erase, or whitewash what Virginians sent the Democratic Party to do in November 2019. I think that is what you see now. For example, now we see anti-equity legislation with coded language…”"

"“It wasn’t about them choosing me, it was really about me choosing them. Because they needed my street cred; they needed someone that was going to come in and tell them the truth.”"

"“I think a lot of the work was realized and you know you can’t change 400 years of inequity in two, three years, but we were able to get so much done that in my mind it’s going to be difficult to completely undo it.”"

"“We didn’t come to play any games…We came to save lives in the middle of a pandemic as well as drive reform.”"

"“ This is where we didn’t get it right. Because there’s such a fragility about this work – and a lot of people don’t understand what they don’t understand. The bottom line is most of us don’t know how to talk about this work; we don’t know how to educate others on why we do the work”"

"The big, macho men from ICE who are storming around American cities like Visigoths are a bunch of cowards. They arm themselves as if they are battling ISIS terrorists in Iraq while the only threat they face is common American citizens with whistles and protest signs. They break into private homes without warrants, they gas school kids, they tackle women on the street, they smash into the cars of American citizens. And one of them summarily executed a mother of three children because -- well, because he could. They think they are tough, but they are punks hiding behind masks. They are poorly-trained thugs dressed up like real soldiers who think they are living out a video game where they get points for assaulting anyone who gets in their way. They are the farthest thing from the real cops who police communities with restraint, discipline and a knowledge of the law.These mercenaries do not serve the country, they serve a regime that excuses their unjustified violence and lies about their lawless actions. President Donald Trump falsely alleges that Renee Good, the mother of three gunned down in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, was a “professional agitator” who showed “disrespect” for law enforcement. His toady press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who will say any despicable thing to please her boss, accused Good of being “a lunatic.” The Homeland Security boss, Kristi Noem, branded Good a “domestic terrorist.” There is zero evidence of any of the Trump administration’s slander. Renee Good was, indeed, out on the street to monitor the actions of ICE, but, as anyone can see in the video taken seconds before she was murdered, she was smiling at the ICE agents and telling them she was not mad at them. Good was, in fact, doing what she had been ordered to do, moving her vehicle out of the way. Trump and his team are even bigger cowards than the cosplay cops they have sent to terrorize immigrants and punish Democratic cities. It takes leaders with maturity and guts to admit fault and accept accountability. The cruel clowns in the White House will never be brave enough to do that."

"[Donald Trump] knows what his supporters want. It’s transparency, and he has given them that on all accounts when it comes to everything this administration has done."

"The hoax is the Democrats pretending to care about victims of crime, when they do not care about victims of crime, when they have to done nothing to solve crimes, when they have done nothing to lock up child pedophiles and child rapists around the country. It is a distraction. The Democrats view the story as nothing more than an attempt to distract from the accomplishments and achievements of this administration. And that is what we mean when we call it a hoax."

"Nobody knows what it means to accomplish peace through strength better than President Trump. He is the one who came up with that motto, and that foreign policy doctrine, and he successfully implemented it in his first term."

"Of course the president supports peaceful protests. What a stupid question."

"If you’ve heard it from the president of the United States, obviously it’s true."

"You’re asking me for what the president’s justification is for these tariffs. It’s not up to you. You’re not the president, Gabe!"

"Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people."

"It’s very easy to speak truth from this podium when you have a president who is implementing policies that are wildly popular with the American people, and that’s exactly what this administration is doing. It’s correcting the lies and the wrongs of the past four years, many of the lies that have been told to your faces in this very briefing room. I will not do that."

"[The big beautiful bill] does not add to the deficit."

"nationwide injunctions ordered against the first Trump administration, Trump 1.0, account for more than half of the injunctions issued in this country since 1963. And President Trump had more injunctions in one full month of office, in February, than Joe Biden had in three years."

"For the commonwealth, with its self-governing status, it is our strong belief that any oversight must…leave the self-governance in place."

"Beyond repaying the debt, there's a whole set of initiatives that is critical. The economy needs greater investment…the gross inequities of Puerto Ricans in the healthcare system need to be remedied."

"A special legislative act is required tailored to the territories…Puerto Rico today, because of its status as a territory…has a completely different relationship with the federal government than any city or any state, and this affects its funding, this affects the rule of law that is in place, and we say that Puerto Rico deserves the tools it needs to restructure its debt...It's emergency legislation to deal with an emergency situation."

"There is a palpable sense of fear and a justifiable expectation on the part of our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico that we, collectively…will act as we have have always acted when there is a crisis that affects Americans, which is to do what's necessary to stem the crisis, to protect the people, and to allow the economy to continue on the path toward growth."

"The markets are telling us what we already know - that the debts are unsustainable."

"We are talking about a..financial crisis in unprecedented terms both in scale and complexity."

"We are talking about stemming the near-term crisis, but what we really need to do is put Puerto Rico back on the path towards growth."

"Puerto Rico's debt is unusually complex, with 18 different but interrelated issuers. There are an even larger number of creditor groups with conflicting interests."

"The so-called no kings protests have been a complete and utter failure with minuscule attendance."

"Everything she's ever achieved will be thrown into a dumpster fire that she lit herself."