Eric Swalwell Quotes

Michael Flynn was forced to resign, we are told, because he told a big lie. But what about the little ones?

As so often happens with Washington scandals, it isn't the original scandal that gets people in the most trouble - it's the attempted cover-up.

It's hard to tell whether [Attorney General] Janet Reno is engaged in a cover-up or she's merely incompetent.

Lying can never save us from another lie.

The fact of the Watergate cover-up is not nearly as interesting as the step into making the cover-up. And when you understand the step, you understand that Richard Nixon lied. That he was a criminal.

The failure of the system to deal quickly was attributable to Nixon's lying, stonewalling and refusal to come clean. So it took 26 months for the final truth to be known.

Bill Clinton lied, but nobody died.

As I watched some of the Watergate hearings I kept asking myself what all these people—[John] Dean and others—were doing there in the first place. Was there really an honest job that needed doing?

Even the most cynical can hardly be surprised by the antics of Nixon and his accomplices as they are gradually revealed. It matters little, at this point, where the exact truth lies in the maze of perjury, evasion, and of contempt for the normal - hardly inspiring - standards of political conduct.

It only takes one lie to taint your entire testimony.

The perjurer's mother told white lies.

The intelligence investigation under the leadership of Senator Church, which I know has helped cause this investigation by you, points out that the agencies did not disclose certain facts to us and that certain plots were going on.

But look, you did not have to be well versed in politics to know that some stupid things were going on. It is the counsel's job to stop them, and instead the coverup was created.

I think all politicians lie.

Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses.

Kennedy lied and lied about his health while he was alive, even using his father's influence to get into the Navy without ever taking a medical examination.

I suppose I shouldn't go around admitting I speak untruths on the radio.

You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I'm innocent. You've got to believe I'm innocent. If you don't, take my job.

When you hear in the tape recordings Nixon's own voice saying, We have to stonewall, We have to lie to the Grand Jury, We have to pay burglars a million dollars, it's all too clear the horror of what went on.

There is hardly a single person in the House of Commons worth painting; though many of them would be better for a little whitewashing.

A President can commit no more serious crime against our democracy than lying to Congress and the American people to get them to support a military action or war.

What did the President know and when did he know it?

Most of us in Congress steal our speeches.

Surely we don’t want the President to lie, we don’t want our senators to lie, we don’t want our congressmen to lie. But sometimes they do.

Liars ought to have good memories.