Quotes from Bob Beckel

We need to gather intelligence, but we need to do so legally.

Trump is part of the reason you are suffering. Trump is the one playing on the not-so-level playing field where he wins and you lose.

Politicos talk a big game about bringing jobs to devastated cities like Detroit, but rarely succeed.

In 1984, I managed Walter Mondale's campaign for president. Mondale won the nomination after a bruising battle with Colorado Senator Gary Hart and Reverend Jesse Jackson.

A few states have taken redistricting out of the hands of partisans and put them in the hands of fair-minded committees. Every state should do the same.

I can talk to more persuadable voters in a week on 'The Five' than I could at CNN in a year, so it's worked out fine.

The fact of the matter, it's that Trump is getting money from blue-collar workers who send him checks for $250. Why? Who is Donald Trump? It's not who he is, it's who he isn't. Not what he is for, what he is against - that is, everything Washington is doing.

It is Trump who plays with the tax code to pay no taxes; it is Trump whose Trump-brand products are made overseas by cheap labor; it is Trump who hires undocumented workers from Poland to work on his projects, then refuses to pay them minimum wages.

Very few undocumented workers come here to be unemployed.

I would be delighted not to see another celebrity, regardless of their political beliefs, come to Washington to make yet another appeal for some cause about which they know little.

There is a huge difference between gathering intelligence in foreign countries, even our allies, and secretly getting information on U.S. citizens.

Where most politicians would have abandoned a supporter like Jeremiah Wright and the community he served, Obama, while strongly criticizing him, did not throw his friend overboard.

Anger in the black community towards Republicans is established and immutable.

Republicans just don't get that their idea of scandal is not what the average American thinks is a serious scandal.

Not only has celebrity dumbed down our politics, it has become intertwined with it.

As tragic as Benghazi was, its importance pales next to killing Osama bin Laden.

When issues emerge that might harm a campaign, like the Clinton e-mails, you have to get all the facts out right away, but not before you have all the facts.

Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis had enormous talent, and Elvis was the major contributor to an entirely new genre of music. Sometimes their exploits were distasteful to people, but they left behind an enormous body of work that endures.

We've come a long way from the days of Jim Crow, and yes, we elected a black president, but racism lives.

Many good journalists have attempted to confront Trump about his many lies and failures, and have failed.

If I never hear of Kim Kardashian and Casey Anthony again, it would make my entire day.

Life is a series of chapters, and one leads to another to another to another, and God knows what it is.

Too many younger people seem to prefer following celebrities instead of doing the work required to get an education that will someday lead to a job. If students today spent as much time on math and science and history as they do following these shallow celebrities, they might actually become contributors to society someday.

I think you got to keep in mind that Obama was raised among Muslims, and I think he really does not want to use the word war on terror because he was raised in that community.