The West Wing (TV Series)
Bad Moon Rising (2001)
Martin Sheen: President Josiah Bartlet
Photos
Quotes
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President Josiah Bartlet : I'm confident in your loyalty to me; I'm confident in your love for me. If you lie to protect me, if you lie just once, if you lie just a little, if you lie 'cause you can't stand what's happening to me and the people making it happen, if you ever, ever lie, you're finished with me. You understand?
Charlie Young : Yes, sir.
President Josiah Bartlet : Say you understand.
Charlie Young : I understand, sir.
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President Josiah Bartlet : I'm going to tell you a story and I want you to tell me if I've engaged 16 people in a conspiracy to defraud the public in order to win a Presidential election.
White House Counsel Oliver Babish : [Looks down at his broken dictaphone, picks up his gavel and destroys it] Okay.
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Leo McGarry : You're scared of Babish.
President Josiah Bartlet : Oh, like you're not.
President Josiah Bartlet : [later] He looks down his nose at me 'cause I'm not a lawyer.
Leo McGarry : Yes.
President Josiah Bartlet : I didn't go to law school. I got a PhD in economics instead.
Leo McGarry : Your parents were very proud.
President Josiah Bartlet : Yeah, and all that happened was I won a Nobel Prize and got elected President so I guess that decision didn't really pay off.
Leo McGarry : Yeah.
President Josiah Bartlet : Should I run back and get my Nobel Prize?
Leo McGarry : I think he knows you've got one.
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Oliver Babish : If I stay, will you do exactly what I tell you to do?
President Josiah Bartlet : I guess it depends.
Oliver Babish : I'm afraid it can't depend, sir.
President Josiah Bartlet : [pauses and thinks] What would my first step be?
Oliver Babish : First tell your staff.
President Josiah Bartlet : Yeah.
Oliver Babish : Then, decide how to make a public announcement.
President Josiah Bartlet : Yeah.
Oliver Babish : Then, order the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor. Not just any special prosecutor, the most blood-spitting, Bartlet-hating Republican in the Bar. He's gonna have an unlimited budget and a staff like an army. The new slogan around here is gonna be "Bring it on!" He's gonna have access to every piece of paper you ever touched. If you invoke executive privilege one time, I'm gone. An assistant D.A in Ducksworth wants to take your deposition, you're on the next plane. A freshman Congressman wants your testimony, you'll sit in his kitchen. They wanna drag you to The Hague and charge you with war crimes, what'll we say?
President Josiah Bartlet : Bring it on.