Mike Murphy citations (42 citations)

“Loyalty is not a small thing. I'm an old Irish pol. No loyalty is owed, if no loyalty was given.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“I'm too pretty to go to jail.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“You have to feel for the French; they were great once.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Romney guru thrives in political 'show business'" https://web.archive.org/web/20060307070315/http://www.boston.com:80/news/politics/president/articles/2005/06/12/romney_guru_thrives_in_political_show_business/?page=full (12 June 2005), by Brian C. Mooney, The Boston Globe
2000s

“My story is very boring. Mostly about hair loss.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“I'd rather cut my arm off than vote for that jerk.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“[T]he only mark-to-market thing in politics is Election Day; everything else is hot air.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“Well, you know, the future is always unmade, and my crystal ball is badly cracked because I’m one of the geniuses that said that "Trump is going to lose by a couple of million votes; he can't win." Well, he lost by a couple of million popular votes, but in the Electoral College, very narrowly, he was able to win.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“We like to say law, order, freedom — pick one, amigo.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“My father likes to talk about the stroller accident that resulted in me becoming a Republican.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Romney guru thrives in political 'show business'" https://web.archive.org/web/20060307070315/http://www.boston.com:80/news/politics/president/articles/2005/06/12/romney_guru_thrives_in_political_show_business/?page=full (12 June 2005), by Brian C. Mooney, The Boston Globe
2000s

“[T]he more he governs, often the more trouble he gets into. He does not improve; he gets more unpopular, at least with the two-thirds of the country that is very suspicious of him.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“It's a choice between Trump, who is terrible for the country, and Cruz, who is terrible for the party. He's too smart for his act … and he's probably pissed that a bigger con man showed up.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“Any good demagogue is very courageously telling people exactly what they want to hear.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2017, Interview with Bill Kristol (2017)

“A Moscow loving grifter is on the loose in the White House. Shame on the Vichy Republicans who constantly enable him.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

Interview with Daniel Lippman https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/04/playbook-birthday-mike-murphy-620654 (2018)
2010s, 2018

“[T]here is no campaign trick or spending level or candidate whisperer that can prevent a party from committing political suicide if it wants to.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“The pain is legit. But Trump is a stupid vote. Because Trump won't solve any of those things, he'll make them all worse. You're voting against your pain. You're voting to create more. You're going for a kind of witch doctor of politics who is promising things based on magic.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“[W]e've got to break this equation of "I'm right, you're evil. So everything you do is suspect, everything you say is a lie, your facts are fake news." Because that is an acid on politics. We've got to get rid of that.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

Interview with Elex Michaelson https://www.facebook.com/ElexMichaelson/videos/318261475405835/ (2018)
2010s, 2018

“If Napoleon had nuclear subs, we’d all be speaking French. So, the history thing can be oversold.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“Trump has gotten six or seven stories in his presidency so far, that if they happened in 1981, there would have been serious talk about the president needing to resign. And that's gone now, that ray gun of, "We don't do this. You can’t get away with that" is pretty much gone.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2017, Interview with Bill Kristol (2017)

“If Trump turns out to be the answer, I'm incredibly proud that Jeb Bush did not want to be any part of the vile question.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“In the end, they killed Rasputin.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“[T]he disease of the Republican Party is we treat base voters like swing voters, when, in fact, is you want to put the base under some pain to attract other people to get to a majority number.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“[Y]ou can't have grievance politics without endless whining. I think if you got the Founding Fathers or the first hundred guys killed at Anzio Beach, brought them back to life, and said, "What do you think of all this?" "What a bunch of whiners. Have you ever had 400 Germans coming at ya? Put on a red hat and say Make America Great Again? What have you done, pal?"”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“Trump is going to go under an electron microscope. And everything I know about Donald Trump, and I know a fair bit about him going back to my Jersey days when he was operating in Atlantic City – that’s where I first kind of encountered him – he is one of the least likely people to survive an electron microscope into his life, I believe, and his business life of anybody. So, my instincts are strongly that they are going to find some stuff.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)

“You want to win in politics? Stop wasting time being dragged screaming out of hearings and learn to f'ing organize. Signed, Reality.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

Twitter post https://twitter.com/murphymike/status/1038557357289033728 (8 September 2018)
2010s, 2018

“[H]aving problems is not a license to vote stupid. People need the tractor to plow the damn field, now.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“[O]ld lady sends her $25 to defeat Nancy Pelosi, and $22 of it goes to "fundraising costs."”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“If we have real, creative destruction here with Trump, and we have Armageddon or worse, out of the ruins will come new successes. New movements. And eventually, new rackets. And I'll be in on them. I admit it, I'm a racketeer.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s

“[T]he larger moral cowardice that has overtaken the party… Trump's shtick is that he's the grievance candidate… He's focused on the economically squeezed Caucasian voter… He is speaking to that rage. Mexican rapists, clever Chinese traders, African American people as dogs. That's Trump's DNA.”

Help us translate this quote

Mike Murphy (political consultant)

As quoted in "'I'm not going there': As Trump hurls racial invective, most Republicans stay silent" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/im-not-going-there-as-trump-hurls-racial-invective-most-republicans-stay-silent/2018/08/18/aab7fd8a-a189-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.492b99efbac1 (18 August 2018), by Ashley Parker and Robert Costa, The Washington Post
2010s, 2018