Louisiana Voice

“There’s no regrets on the part of this White House. We stand by those actions.”

—White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, on the aggressive tactics employed by US Park Police to clear Lafayette Park so Trump could have his Bible-totin’ photo-op. [She really should learn to make her subject and verb agree (There’s: singular, regrets: plural).]

“If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”

—Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, in speech he had written and was prepared to deliver in case the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, had failed.

“I didn’t do it.”

—Donald Trump, when asked about his administration’s disbanding the White House pandemic team upon taking office. [Actually, he did do it.]

“No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”

—Trump, when asked if he took any responsibility for his administration’s slow response to the coronavirus outbreak. [The final three quotes are contained in a new television ad by the Lincoln Project, a group of former Republican political operatives opposed to Trump, to illustrate how Trump refuses to take responsibility for his blunders as opposed to former President Eisenhower.]

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“We’re eroding the capabilities of the planet to maintain human life and life in general.”

—Gerardo Ceballos, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and lead author of a new study that indicates that we are in the midst of a mass extinction driven not by any catastrophic natural event, but by humans. [At the current rate, about 500 more terrestrial vertebrate species will become extinct over the next 20 years, the number that would normally occur over 10,000 years. If allowed to continue, Earth will lose vast ecosystems and the necessities they provide, including fresh water, pollination, and pest and disease control. In language the computer generation can understand: Earth may need to reboot.]

“No, I don’t support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness.”

—Joe Biden, expressing his opposition to calls to defund police departments.

“The funding of police is a local matter, as you know. From the standpoint of our legislation, we’re not going to that place. What we’re doing is talking about how we change policy to make our policing more just,”

—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on defunding police departments.

“There won’t be defunding. There won’t be dismantling of our police, and there’s not going to be any disbanding of our police. Our police have been letting us live in peace, and we want to make sure we don’t have any bad actors in there.”

—Donald Trump, on defunding police departments. [Is this what’s known as bipartisanship?]

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“Unfortunately, it appears there may be few if any lines that President Trump is not willing to cross, so you will probably be faced with this terrible question again in the coming days. You may be asked to take, or to direct the men and women serving in the U.S. military to take, actions that further undermine the Constitution and harm Americans.”

—James Miller, in his letter of resignation as a member of the Pentagon’s science board to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper whom he accused of betraying his oath of office by backing Donald Trump on the forced removal of peaceful protesters to allow that church photo-op last Monday.

“This is absurd. Ivanka Trump, who leads economic development initiatives, was giving a non-partisan graduation speech at a community college. If the snowflakes so offended by the idea of hearing from a White House advisor couldn’t contain their emotions, they should have skipped the speech. Instead, they ruined it for everyone.”

—Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark), on the decision by Wichita State University Tech, a community college, to cancel a commencement speech by First Daughter Ivanka Trump. [Cotton seems to be implying that Ivanka’s qualifications as an adviser to the president extend beyond being his daughter.]

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“We want to make this year President Trump’s BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.”

—Text sent out by Trump campaign website, which provided a form for people to fill out and upload clips. The campaign promised to show Trump “the first 500 responses TONIGHT.” [What could go wrong?]

“It’s going to be really miserable for you until November.”

—Actor Ron Delaney response.

“You’re probably too busy to celebrate. You’ve got television to work, tweets to write, protesters to gas, intelligence reports to ignore, pandemic responses to (screw) up.”

—Actor Michael Ian Black response.

“My birthday is also June 14 and I invite you to send your selfie videos of you furious and screaming in your SUV to me instead.”

—Irate American who shares the same birthday.

“I weep to share this vile man’s birthday.”

—Rabia O’Chaundry response.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING about this administration astounds me every day.

—Antonio Javier response.

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“Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, ‘There’s a great thing that’s happening for our country.’ This is a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality. Nobody’s ever done for the black community what President Trump has done.”

—Donald Trump, invoking George Floyd’s name in a Rose Garden celebration of a May unemployment report that showed “only” 21 million people — 13.3 percent of the workforce — out of work. [Words fail me.]

“How would a better economy have protected George Floyd?”

–NBC’s Peter Alexander. [Trump didn’t answer.]

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