John Podesta Thinking Quotations

I did answer all of the questions put to me today, ... Nothing in my testimony in any way contradicted the strong denials that the president has made to these allegations, and since I have been asked to return and answer some additional questions, I think that it's best that I not answer any questions out here and reserve that to the grand jury.

I think ... that things are a little bit up for grabs right now...

Realistically, I think we are not prepared to go home until we do get more teachers and lower class sizes...

I think that what we've been able to do is put together both a good group of scholars and analysts and people who aggressively want to make the case to the American public.

This tough-love, winner-take-all narrative dominating policymaking is far too limited a way to think about how a complex, modern, diverse economy like ours expands and thrives. The strongest periods of economic growth in the 20th century were also times when incomes rose across the board.

I think if you look at yesterday's New York Times poll, particularly when you judge Democrats in Congress versus the Republicans in Congress, people put a little more faith, or even a little more than a little more faith in the Democrats in Congress.

I think that people have to have to have a sense of what ideas are one the progressive side, the Democratic side in order ultimately to be effective in the political world.

Ultimately I think what people care about, particularly on an issue like Social Security, is not really what's right and what's left but what's right and what's wrong.

So I think it's important to communicate with the people in terms of what the real facts are on these proposals and try to have a discussion and a dialogue that gives people information. I think they're hungry for that rather than just political rhetoric.

So I think in those circumstances, there's some potential that you could see a big pendulum swing like 1994, which people you thought weren't vulnerable all of the sudden get in trouble.

I have great respect for Bernie Sanders, there was a moment where he opposed the Paris Deal... I was frustrated with him, but he and I have a very good relationship... and I have great affection for him, but I do think when he criticized the Paris agreement, I didn't think it was the right position.

In fact, I think that Governor Clinton, when he was running, and President Clinton, when he was serving, actually governed with a wide range of advisors and a perspective that blended the best of ideas from the center and the left.

If that's your definition of the Clinton faction, then I think that that seems to be in ascendancy. That might include a guy like John Edwards, who's just starting this new center in Chapel Hill to deal with issues of poverty and work.

I think it’s time to open the books, on questions that have remained in the dark on the question of government investigations of UFOs, it’s time to find out what the truth really is that’s out there. We ought to do it because it’s right, we ought to do it because the American people, and people around the world quite frankly can handle the truth, and we ought to do it because it’s the law.