Lawrence O'Donnell

“I am not a liberal who is so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to progressive.”

“In the summer of 2007, I was in New York for some meetings and... I rented a car and just drove to Staten Island to take a glance and remind myself about it. I ended up staying a couple of days there in a hotel and I've been all over the island several times since.”

“I've never designed anything in my life to accommodate MSNBC. I've had to squeeze it in.”

“All men in makeup are playing a part.”

“Publicly, defense lawyers cling to the text book theory that the defendant has no burden of proof and that no negative inference should ever be taken when a defendant doesn't defend himself on the witness stand.”

“Republicans believe that tax cuts can build buildings, all sorts of miraculous things. A lot of Democrats and liberals believe that spending more money in a school is going to up the test scores, no matter how much evidence there is that it won't, or hasn't.”

“Charlie Rangel is angry about the Iraq war, the one that Henry Kissinger has told us we can't win. Thanks, Henry, but most Americans figured that out before you did. Rangel saw combat in Korea. Kissinger has only seen combat on TV. That might have something to do with why Kissinger thinks our troops should stay in Iraq even though we can't win.”

“There are people out there who disagree with me politically, and understand the limits of that disagreement. It doesn't mean we disagree as people on basic human needs.”

“When you get off to an African country like Malawi - which is pretty removed from everything and pretty seriously off the grid - and you see the struggle of life that goes on there, it's a completely different thing than what happens here.”

“I've never understood the value of putting someone on television to lie, knowing that they're going to lie ahead of time, knowing that that is their deal: to lie ahead of time. There is zero news value in that.”

“At 'The West Wing,' I cast newscasters, and when you put out a casting call for actors, half of the people who come in are real local L.A. newscasters. Each time, I ended up hiring one of them, because they're better at it. Big surprise! A newscaster is better at playing a newscaster than an actor is.”

“The Iraq Study Group's report is a very respectable cover document for American surrender in Iraq.”

“Teachers who have committed their lives to the classroom deserve better than our politics has given them.”

“If I write a cop show, it's not up to me to decide how different it is from 'Law & Order.' I had screenwriters go on and on and on about how their cop show isn't like any other cop show on TV. They made very good points, and it absolutely doesn't matter. It's entirely up to the audience to decide.”

“Practical European socialists have embraced the idea that the government has a role in healthcare and in supporting strong transportation systems that do not depend entirely on individual motor vehicles. And it turns out we're all socialists now, and there are very few Americans who understand that.”

“The George Wallace campaign in 1968 was the model for the Trump campaign in 2016.”

“No one outside of the Black Caucus would be happy to see Alcee Hastings in a chairmanship. I first saw Alcee Hastings in his impeachment trial in the Senate.”

“I don't think Republicans are evil. I think they mostly have a different philosophy of government than I do.”

“Shepard Smith has frequently been the lone voice of reason on Fox News.”

“Never once has Republican world said hey, maybe we should look into how police officers are carrying out their solemn public responsibility to serve and protect. No - no right wing website in America is investigating or will ever investigate how well police officers do their jobs.”