John Dickerson Quotes

John Dickerson

Profession : Journalist

Birth : July 6, 1968

Things were so unpredictable in Comey's first meeting with President-elect Trump, the former FBI director immediately took notes in his car after the interaction.

John Dickerson

Comey worried that the pressure from Trump to end the Flynn investigation or remove the 'cloud' of the larger investigation would 'infect' the investigation if he let others working on the case know about it. You don't need to believe the particulars of each exchange to see that this mode of management was not productive to a larger purpose.

John Dickerson

A number of Donald Trump's supporters told me during the campaign they had faith that he would be a good president because he would be helped by the experts around him. But the president's improvisation saps experts of their key skill: pattern recognition.

John Dickerson

Mother's Day is a welcome event in partisan times. Nearly everyone agrees that we should show mothers gratitude.

John Dickerson

When she died, Mom left me her letters and journals. Windows into things I would have been too young to understand when she was alive, or too busy, or too much of a know-it-all.

John Dickerson

In the modern presidency, the Chief Executive is expected to respond to anxious national moments with words that stabilize the country. President Trump chose a different route. He did not give a stirring speech of unity or create a national gathering point around common ideals. He spent his passion on other things.

John Dickerson

A campaign gives you focus. You wake up to a different hotel alarm clock every day, but you know your mission.

John Dickerson

When the campaign ends, and you are home, the alarm clock is the same, but you don't know where to start after it goes off: expense reports, new stories, the crusted paint cans that have to go to the hazardous-waste disposal site, the wiper blade on the Honda that has gone droopy.

John Dickerson

You lose yourself in the to-do list and never tackle those big things you promised you would when the campaign came to an end.

John Dickerson

When the kids were young, they just wanted to be around us. We were units of comfort and support. As they get older, we work the turnstile, helping the exasperated customer pass whatever temporary obstacle is keeping them from their next exciting thing. Now we're the ones who just like having them in the room.

John Dickerson

Claims of a decisive 'turning point' in any election are often overblown - more often, such a moment merely crystallizes a change that's been days or weeks in the making. But you can make a real case that Obama's Jefferson-Jackson Day speech is a pivot point in America history.

John Dickerson

The 2008 battle in Iowa for the Democratic caucus was perhaps the most titanic single nominating contest in the history of modern politics.

John Dickerson

In the end, Obama won, stealing the change message from John Edwards and beating back Hillary Clinton's focus on experience. And the race turned on a remarkable speech Obama gave on the night of Nov. 10, 2007, in Des Moines.

John Dickerson

When I was first asked to be on 'Washington Week', I never prepared more for an appearance.

John Dickerson

The Chinese, our allies, have been allies with North Korea.

John Dickerson

Presidents have to learn how to adapt. Every president comes into the job; it's different than they expect. They must adapt.

John Dickerson

People out there with pre-existing conditions, they are worried. Are they going to have the guarantee of coverage if they have a pre-existing condition or if they live in a state where the governor decides that's not a part of the health care, or that the prices are going to go up? That's the worry.

John Dickerson

Inaugural speeches are supposed to be huge and stirring. Presidents haul our heroes onstage, from George Washington to Martin Luther King Jr. George W. Bush brought the Liberty Bell. They use history to make greatness and achievements seem like something you can just take down from the shelf.

John Dickerson

In order for a president to be transformational, the old order has to fall as the orthodoxies that kept it in power exhaust themselves.

John Dickerson

In the 2012 campaign, the president successfully transformed the most intense conservative positions into liabilities on immigration and the role of government.

John Dickerson