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William Kristol Quotes

William "Bill" Kristol is an American neoconservative political analyst and commentator. He is the founder and editor at large of the political magazine The Weekly Standard and a political commentator on several networks.

Kristol is associated with a number of prominent conservative think tanks. He was chairman of the New Citizenship Project from 1997 to 2005. In 1997, he co-founded the Project for the New American Century with Robert Kagan. He is a member of the board of trustees for the free-market Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a member of the Policy Advisory Board for the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and a director of the Foreign Policy Initiative. He is also one of the three board members of Keep America Safe, a think tank co-founded by Liz Cheney and Debra Burlingame, and serves on the board of the Emergency Committee for Israel and the Susan B. Anthony List. He has featured in a web program of the Foundation for Constitutional Government, Conversations with Bill Kristol, since 2014.

✵ 23. December 1952
William Kristol photo
William Kristol: 21   quotes 0   likes

Famous William Kristol Quotes

“We're to blame for the "bad blood." Not Putin. The real meaning of America First is Blame America First.”

William Kristol

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/984074345571127296 (11 April 2018)
2010s, 2018

“Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single democratic primary. I'll predict that right now.”

William Kristol

Fox News Sunday, December 17, 2006 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/12/edward_kennedy_frederick_smith.html
2000s

“Donald Trump is an embarrassment. It would be better for the country if he were president for at most one term.”

William Kristol

2010s, 2017, A Sense of Responsibility (2017)

“Trump is the proximate, the efficient, cause of the collapse of the conservative movement. The principles of sound conservatism compel us to criticize him, to rebut him, to resist him, and to plan to overcome him.”

William Kristol

2010s, 2018, The Silent Artillery of Time (2018)

“The town hall has the spirit of representative democracy, the rally of autocracy.”

William Kristol

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1036709871025049600 (3 September 2018)
2010s, 2018

“The rhetorical extremism, the winking at violence, the reveling in vulgarity, and the embrace of amoralism are not bugs but features of Trumpism. Intellectual and moral coarsening is both a condition and a consequence of the demagogue's success. Trumpism really does corrupt.”

William Kristol

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1053642303372386304 (20 October 2018)
2010s, 2018

William Kristol Quotes about the world

“The noble simplicity of sentiment in McCain’s tweets is a world removed from Trump’s gaudy and boastful displays. And McCain’s demonstration of character and courage is a far more reliable guide to American greatness than the pronouncements of a president who speaks of it nonstop and embodies it not at all.”

William Kristol

2010s, 2017, True American Greatness (2017)

“The Obama years have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Severely wanting. By the end of Obama's presidency, the U. S. standing in the world was weaker—clearly and appreciably weaker—than when he became president. The force of American power was diminished, and freedom was in retreat. By the end of Obama's presidency, was there a single part of the world where the United States was in a stronger position than when he took office? Was there an ally who was more confident or an adversary who was less so? By the end of Obama's presidency, were any important countries either friendlier or freer than they had been when he took over? The answer to all these questions: no.”

William Kristol

2010s, 2017, Obama's Legacy (2017)

“[T]he Islamic world is a source of danger and destruction is all too conceivable. Indeed, it’s been on display, in plain sight, for years… The jihadist threat is real, and it must, obviously, be fought and defeated. But that raises another problem—not a problem with Islam, but a problem with the West. We have lost our nerve. In recent years, the attitude of Barack Obama has prevailed over the spirit of Charlie Hebdo. The claims of sensitivity have trumped the attachment to freedom. Appeasement of jihad has supplanted the war on terror. Most fundamentally—let’s be honest—fear has overwhelmed courage. And so the American president has been happy to proclaim, as he did at the United Nations in September 2012, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” He has been less willing to say that the future must not belong to those who kill in the name of the prophet of Islam… We face a crisis of Islam. We need to be clear-eyed about that. But we also face a crisis of the West. Only if we come to grips with that second crisis will this period of consequences turn out to be an occasion for renewal rather than another marker on the path to decadence.”

William Kristol

2010s, 2017, The Two Crises (2017)

William Kristol Quotes

“Winners have standards.”

William Kristol

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1005800974592757760 (10 June 2018)
2010s, 2018

“I’d rather fight than switch. It’s worth fighting.”

William Kristol

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1038771343918096385 (9 September 2018)
2010s, 2018

Fight

“Younger people actually understand how it works. They don't just take what they are fed according to their preferences; they go look at other things. So I've always been more anti-baby boomer and more pro-millennial.”

William Kristol

As quoted in "Bill Kristol: 'I've Always Been More Anti-Baby Boomer and More Pro-Millennial'" https://bold.global/reneebc/2018/10/30/bill-kristol-ive-always-been-more-anti-baby-boomer-and-more-pro-millennial/ (30 October 2018), by Renee Brown-Cheng, Bold
2010s, 2018

People , Understanding , Baby

“Well, Foley is responsible for it, and the voters in Florida, I guess, who elected him. Maybe they should have known better.”

William Kristol

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610040006 Responding if Republican house leadership bears any responsibility for failing to properly address inappropriate emails allegedly sent by former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to an underage male congressional page. (October 4, 2006)
2000s

“The present moment is not one to be proud of. The normal vulgarity of democratic politics has become the shameless demagoguery of democratic decadence. The routine operation of party politics has given way to the mindless polarization of partisan fanatics. The characteristic limitations of popular leaders have yielded to an abdication of leadership itself. A public life with occasional cringeworthy moments has been replaced by one that is on the whole cringeworthy.”

William Kristol

2010s, 2017, After Trump (2017)

Life , Way

“No disease any refugee might bring to America is as dangerous as the disease of fear, bigotry and hatred now being spread in America by Fox.”

William Kristol

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1056861868743188480 (29 October 2018)
2010s, 2018

Fear , Disease

“[I]nstitutions are strong; it turns out you don't need a lot of sensible or even sane leadership in the White House.”

William Kristol

Interview with the Octavian Report https://octavianreport.com/article/william-kristol-fix-american-politics/2/ (2018)
2010s, 2018

Strong , Housing

“Isn't conservatism in part about resisting so-called new realities when you sense they might be questionable, even as people lecture you that you’ve got to get with the times?”

William Kristol

2010s, 2018, Still a Republican (2018)

People , Question , Reality , Sense

“I think Rumsfeld was not a good Defense Secretary. I'm glad he's gone.”

William Kristol

Referring to the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld in an interview with The Daily Show's Jon Stewart
2000s

Thinking

“So WE are to blame for the "bad blood" with Russia. Not what Putin has done in Ukraine, in Syria, in the UK, at home, or with respect to our elections. Amazing.”

William Kristol

Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/984074028817281026 (11 April 2018)
2010s, 2018

Home

“It's not a serious document.”

William Kristol

Referring to the Iraq Study Group report
Fox News Live http://mediamatters.org/items/200612090003 (December 6, 2006)
2000s

“For the American comedian, see Billy Crystal.”

William Kristol

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