Talking Points: Did You See What They Said?

"We were sitting ducks. Without the Capitol Hill police, it would have been a massacre." — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, describing the scene of a rifle attack on members of Congress and their aides practicing for a charity baseball game as "sort of a killing field" ( Foxnews.com, Wednesday)"I think we should let Bob Mueller do his work and get to the bottom of it, and get to the bottom of it quickly so that he can be vindicated, get to these things. Let's not forget what this is originally all about. Russia is up to no good. Russia is trying to meddle into our elections." — House Speaker Paul Ryan, on reports that President Trump is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller ( WashingtonExaminer.com, Tuesday)"In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets." — Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill. introducing the COVFEFE Act, which would amend the Presidential Records Act to ensure that President Trump's Twitter account contents are archived and penalties set for deleting tweets (Foxnews.com, Monday)"The city of Dallas needs to understand what it is and embrace its true self and not be a collection of things rich people saw on vacation." — Dallas City Councilman Philip Kingston on the council's decision to remove the Dallas Wave, a whitewater feature in the Trinity River that rendered the river unnavigable and is costing the city millions of dollars (Dallasnews.com, Wednesday)"They didn't infiltrate our system. They couldn't get in."— Toni Pippins-Poole, Dallas County's elections administrator, on reports that Russian hackers targeted the county's voter registration files last November (Dallasnews.com, Thursday) "Everybody has a doppelganger. Luckily we found his."— Attorney Alice Craig, whose client Richard Anthony Jones walked out of prison a free man after 17 years when lawyers found another prisoner who resembled Jones and used the same first name (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Monday) "We want to fund programs that directly affect systems of poverty so we can help change the systems or change the dynamics that are causing people to be in poverty." — Harold Smith, whose family won a $429 million Powerball jackpot last year, on plans to spend the money to fight poverty in their hometown of Trenton N.J. (HuffingtonPost.com, Monday)"I doubt very much if I would be the first one who ever did that. That's like saying I invented the wheel. I'm sure someone did that at some other point."— Ronnie James Dio, the heavy metal rocker who used a hand signal on stage that loosely resembles Hook 'em Horns, on efforts by Gene Simmons, the co-founder of Kiss, to patent that hand signal (OrlandoSentinel.com, Thursday)"All my friends were outside with their big yellow folders taking pictures and I was still inside trying to get my diploma. I was really hurt and embarrassed, basically humiliated" — Marvin Wright, Edgecombe High School class president, after administrators withheld his diploma in retaliation for Wright delivering his own address instead of the one administrators at the Pinetops N.C. school substituted at the last minute (WashingtonPost.com, Thursday) "I'm back! Thanks to my sponsor PotCoin.com."—Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, announcing his return to North Korea and acknowledging PotCoin, which offers banking services to the legal marijuana industry (NewYork Times, Tuesday)"It really undermines supervision and it really destroys a lot of other protections against too big to fail." — Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, on how the repeal of Dodd-Frank legislation would put consumers at risk and open the door to a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis (NBCNews.com, Monday) "The show has changed people's ideas of fitness. The emergence of obstacle course races like the Tough Mudder and the show have made military-style fitness fun again."— Tony Torres, a former contestant on "American Ninja Warrior" (Baltimore Sun, Monday)  Continue reading...