Quotes from Mark Shields

Let's not pretend that all of a sudden, this is some new system.

If I were John Bolton, I'd take great consolation in the words of my principal supporter on the committee, who gave a ringing endorsement, which was, There is no evidence that he has broken any laws.

George Bush says what John Kerry did was noble. Yet he sees him being savaged by his own supporters.

When the size of the group supporting your cause reaches a critical mass, any legislator or elected official has to pay attention.

There's no question that Stalin broke the agreements made at Yalta completely about elections that were supposed to be held immediately in Poland, and Eastern Europe was plunged into slavery as a consequence.

Mitt Romney was the man who stood up to Donald Trump early, hard, never wavered.

Donald Trump is not an unintelligent man.

The corporations who invest in lobbyists, it pays in terms of tax loopholes, tax subsidies, all the rest. It pays. Clearly, the money has a big effect.

There's nothing wrong with being organized.Things that change history tend to be organized.

I think Hillary Clinton - first of all, it's a great victory, acknowledge it. She has made history.

Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than the example of our power.

America's exceptionalism, American leadership, the American model, the American values are not [first with Donald Trump] - they're something that end at the border.

What you have is two men seeking the White House; they're both products of prominent New England families. They both went to private boarding schools. They both went to a prestigious university.

George Bush is trying to play it both ways.

The important thing to understand about legislators is that there are dozens of competing interests and issues that occupy them. They are stretched thin.

The failure to invest in our public transportation and public life, I think, is a scandal and a shame, and it should be a national embarrassment.

In the 2004 presidential election, we saw a wonderful example of citizens making contributions. In fact, individual giving to both the Kerry and Bush campaigns was the highest in our nation's history.

When you have got military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, they're intended for one purpose. And that is to inflict as much damage on human beings in as short as time as possible.

At a time when the public is sour on politicians, have no use for them, Bill Clinton has risen to a different level. Bill Clinton is endlessly interesting.

Now Republicans are a more interventionist party than they have been at any time since George W. Bush left office.

I don't hear any clear, coherent message [from Democrats]. I mean, when you're a party out of power, it's the time to be a national party chair.

The argument of those who are being criticized at any time, the civil rights movement forward, the anti-war movement forward, is, it's always outside agitators doing it.

I didn't realize the president was such an historian.

George Washington was the president who could never tell a lie, and Richard Nixon was the president who could never tell the truth. Donald Trump is truly the president who can't tell the difference.