Scott McClellan quotes

When I was knowingly misled but only learned that much later, that's really when I started to become disillusioned at the White House. (Scott McClellan)
Waging an unnecessary war is a grave mistake. View quote
Scott McClellan
As press secretary, I spent countless hours defending the administration from the podium in the White House briefing room. View quote
Scott McClellan
The Iraq war was not necessary. View quote
Scott McClellan
Isn't it my right to talk and say what I want to? View quote
Scott McClellan
As a Texas loyalist who followed Bush to Washington with great hope and personal affection and as a proud member of his administration, I was all too ready to give him and his highly experienced foreign policy advisers the benefit of the doubt on Iraq. Unfortunately, subsequent events have showed that our willingness to trust the judgment of Bush and his team was misplaced. View quote
Scott McClellan
As I have heard Bush say, only a wartime president is likely to achieve greatness, in part because the epochal upheavals of war provide the opportunity for transformative change of the kind Bush hoped to achieve. In Iraq, Bush saw his opportunity to create a legacy of greatness. View quote
Scott McClellan
I believe in working together to solve the problems we've got. And we need to get rid of the venom in the political atmosphere in D.C. It's a poisonous atmosphere. View quote
Scott McClellan
Q: But if you stand out strongly trying to let the Arab world know that this is wrong and then you have the proverbial spokesperson for the conservative party saying this, doesn't that send a mixed message? Scott McClellan: The President's views have been very -- have been made very clear. Go ahead. View quote
Scott McClellan
...I could not say honestly today that this administration does not believe in torture, does not engage in torture. View quote
Scott McClellan
The President is a very straightforward and plainspoken person, and I'm someone who believes in dealing in a very straightforward way with you all, as well, and that's what I've worked to do. (Scott McClellan)
Well, I indicated yesterday that I think there were some -- a few staff-level meetings. But, no, I'm making sure that I have a thorough report back to you on that. And I'll get that to you, hopefully very soon. View quote
Scott McClellan
Jeff Gannon: In your denunciations of the Abu Ghraib photos, you've used words like "sickening," "disgusting" and "reprehensible." Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers? And will Americans ever see those images? Scott McClellan: I'm glad you brought that up, Jeff, because the President talks about that often. View quote
Scott McClellan
I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood. It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the President effectively. I didn't learn that what I'd said was untrue until the media began to figure it out almost two years later. ... Neither, I believe, did President Bush. he too had been deceived, and therefore became unwittingly involved in deceiving me. But the top White House officials who know the truth -- including Rove, Libby, and possibly Vice President Cheney -- allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie. View quote
Scott McClellan
Jeff Gannon: Last Friday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that shows that Ambassador Joe Wilson lied when he said his wife didn't put him up for the mission to Niger. The British inquiry into their own prewar intelligence yesterday concluded that the President's 16 words were "well-founded." Doesn't Joe Wilson owe the President and America an apology for his deception and his own intelligence failure? Scott McClellan: Well, one, let me point out that I think those reports speak for themselves on that issue. And I think if you have questions about that, you can direct that to Mr. Wilson. View quote
Scott McClellan
Jeff Gannon: Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting? What was he doing after he was honorably discharged? Scott McClellan: We've already commented on some of his views relating back to that period the other day. View quote
Scott McClellan
If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration. View quote
Scott McClellan
In this case, the 'liberal media' didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served. View quote
Scott McClellan
I remember my mom saying to me that what your friends do is one thing, but what you do could be on the front page of the paper. View quote
Scott McClellan
In survey after survey, the Iraqi people say, 'We want to choose our leaders.' View quote
Scott McClellan
My wife and I look for ways to always support the troops, including sending care packages regularly to them. (Scott McClellan)
I was raised on the values of speaking up and making a positive difference in a very political family that believed in the importance of public service. View quote
Scott McClellan
Well, uh, all people - all, I think all human begins, uh, have good attributes, and they also have their flaws. View quote
Scott McClellan
The permanent campaign is inherently deceptive. View quote
Scott McClellan
Well I think that you have to be open and honest in order to learn from your mistakes and be able to correct them in the future to understand what would happen to take things off course. And if we don't address these issues openly and honestly then we don't learn. View quote
Scott McClellan