Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Senate is debating right now, obviously, a really important issue. It is the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh. It is a very serious and important debate. It is a contentious debate. There are a lot of emotions out there, and it is going to continue to be that way, but I want to talk about something that is not actually related to that. In some ways, it is actually related to something very different. I heard in the news this morning--actually, I hear this in the news all the time. I say to our friends in the media, this speech that I am going to give has a little bit about something I want you to focus on and to try a little harder in certain ways to report. There is a conventional wisdom out there that the Senate is the most contentious it has ever been--that there is hyperpartisanship, that nobody talks to each other, and that nobody likes each other. I have heard people talk about 1850, the Civil War, and that nothing gets done. Now, I am not a media basher. I walk out, and I do my interviews. I am very open. Back home in the great State of Alaska, I am open to the media all the time. I am respectful. I don't see the media as the enemy of the people or anything like that. They certainly have their biases, but I will say that I believe, to some degree, this narrative of ``hey, this place is so partisan; I haven't seen this since the 1850s; nothing gets done here'' is driven by the media. Conflict sells. We know that.…”