Top 55 Ari Melber Quotes

The Trump administration has struggled with ethics vetting for Cabinet nominees and faced criticism for the president’s decision to remain invested in his business empire.

I feel like I’m totally me, and I feel like the show reflects my intensity, my vibe, and my search for evidence and answers.

If you would have said, in law school, would it be more likely that I would be working on a book or on a TV show, I would have said book.

Political operatives don’t tend to be existentialists. They do know, however, that if a supporter doesn’t vote, then his or her opinion does not make a sound – or a difference.

The Dream Act and the DISCLOSE Act, to name two, had majorities in both chambers during Obama’s first term, but they were filibustered to death. They probably await a similar fate unless the filibuster is reformed.

Of course, no one doubts McCain’s personal tenacity, from braving torture to overcoming cancer. Yet plenty of nonpartisan observers doubt his credibility.

The first rule of hip-hop is probably keep it real. And that can mean a lot of different things, but that’s certainly important in reporting and storytelling.

When controversy calls, corporations can be far more responsive than politicians. The market votes every day, after all.

Obama won the presidency by running the first integrated three-screen campaign – reaching people directly via Internet, cell phones, and TV – with an authentic, complex style that resonated for voters sick of dark, deceitful, and divisive politics.

In politics, your opponent can be far more important than your vision.

Tea Party sympathizers are more conservative on abortion policy than typical Republicans.

Like any extraordinary power, surveillance provides temptations for abuse, such as tracking political opponents and journalists.

Even George W. Bush, who as president pushed the boundaries of executive power, never proposed a statutory scheme to hold people indefinitely.

Iowa is especially critical for underdog and cash-strapped campaigns, because the caucus system relies on grassroots organizing, enabling candidates with time for retail politicking to beat better-funded rivals. So underdogs usually seize on the state.

Shareholders, of course, have every right to weigh in on whether (or how) they want a company to exercise political influence.

Good lawyering is usually cerebral and impersonally. You can convince a judge with a mastery of facts, detail, and precedent – not a story from the gut about how you feel a certain way.

A healthy corporation acts on the interests of its stakeholders and customers.

Progressive bloggers should not only write on behalf of the members of America’s underclass but also empower them to join the discussion.

Republicans believe an obstructionist, do-nothing Congress will deny Obama momentum and keep their base energized.

I remember buying The Fugees’ ‘The Score’ my freshman year and feeling like this whole new world and this whole new conversation was opening up to me.

Democracy functions better when donors push politicians to win campaigns based on their defining issues instead of using financial pressure for policy changes, favors, or special access.

News may not be very profitable anymore, but it sure is popular.

Obstruction takes time.

I was more interested in journalism and fact-finding than other things, so I didn’t plan to work 30 years as a lawyer.

One of the great things about ‘The Cycle’ is that we have a wide set of topics – news, culture, music, and sports – and every week, we have several authors of new books on, which often injects literature, history, technology, business, and science into our show as well.

Hypocrites are more enraging than extremists, as every campaign operative knows.

My hope is to be a trusted utensil for viewers. Like, literally, ‘That thing works. I can rely on that thing.’

Like any good lawyer, I’m going to maintain a confidentiality of advice offered in confidence.

I get up with an old-school alarm clock.

Many candidates use a political autobiography to sell their candidacy.

There’s a lot of hip-hop that’s oriented toward a progressive view of America because it’s oriented toward a civil rights progress and a critique of the power structure.

It’s never a good sign when extremism becomes the norm.

The ‘FISA Amendments Act’ would gut the oversight system established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which subjected domestic spying to review by a special intelligence court.

My favorite rappers are a lot of other people’s favorite rappers. I love Jay Z, Kanye, 2Pac, Biggie, old Mos Def.

There are a lot of things that people learn and live through culture first, and politics comes afterward.

Tea Party adherents are actually more religion-driven and more anti-abortion than the party they are supposedly upending.

I’ve worked in government. I’ve worked in competitive New York litigation, I’ve worked as a writer and reporte..

I do listen to Drake.

When a government forcibly holds enough people indefinitely without trial, it evokes the kinds of raids, detention, and abuses of power associated with authoritarian states – or darker periods in American history.

Barack Obama was first elected after a period of profound failure by elite and government institutions, from finance to foreign policy to Hurricane Katrina, and his first term immediately and unapologetically enacted a flurry of government solutions.

The Tea Party movement’s economic agenda is a matter of emphasis, not exclusion. This is not a single-issue group.

I think the challenge for anyone in a visible industry, whether it’s media, government, or political organizing, is to take serious criticism seriously and not to live in the shadows of the noise and the concern trolls.

If anything, the genuine human struggles in ‘Sicko’ raise questions about our society that run much deeper than what passes for political discourse today. Why does such a rich nation let people suffer and die without health care?

A precedent provides legal authority for an action precisely because it occurred before.

The Bush administration opened several lines of attack against the rule of law and the integrity of an independent Justice Department. The scandals are so famous that they’ve been reduced to shorthand: Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, NSA, Attorneygate.

I started freelancing, writing op-eds and book reviews, one at a time. I then got the opportunity to write recurring freelance pieces for ‘The Nation’ magazine, focusing on how the Internet was changing politics.

The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus is crucial for every presidential campaign.

Washington is deeply frustrating because so many of the positions that politicians hold are a product of ephemeral self-interest. They reverse themselves, for themselves, all the time.

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of American history knows that unchecked spying undermines democracy and public trust.

Historically, the most favorably viewed figure in any administration is the first lady, regardless of her husband’s popularity. That is largely because first ladies avoid the political fray and are ritualistically presented as a warm, human presence in the White House.

While ‘Django Unchained’ presents a morally stark universe, where people do and say evil things with no remorse, it also luxuriates in the license that such evil provides.

Large majorities of voters support taxing millionaires and protecting social security.

Why do Tea Party backers oppose abortion at higher rates than their traditional GOP cohort? Religion.

Thieves don’t usually make good therapists.

Honestly, anchoring the news on a nightly basis is the hardest job I’ve ever taken on.