The Newsroom (TV Series)

One Step Too Many (2013)

John Gallagher Jr.: Jim Harper

Quotes 

• MacKenzie McHale : Any Questions?

  Jim Harper : Sarin gas?

  MacKenzie McHale : I don't believe it either. And I also don't believe in Santa Claus but if I saw eight reindeer take flight...

  Jim Harper : You haven't seen eight reindeer. You've talked to someone who's seen eight reindeer.

  Jerry Dantana : And we have someone who's tweeted about the reindeer and a third witness who's interviewed victims of the reindeer and a highly placed confidential source who's confirmed that in this place, at that time, reindeer flew.

  Sloan Sabbith : It could matter less, but Santa Claus has nine reindeer.

  Don Keefer : Rudolph!

  Sloan Sabbith : Dasher Dancer Prancer...

  Neal Sampat : Blitzen...

  Sloan Sabbith : How many is is that?

  Jerry Dantana : It really doesn't matter.

  Jim Harper : You really believe we used Sarin.

  Jerry Dantana : Yes.

  Jim Harper : On civilians

  Jerry Dantana : Yes.

  Don Keefer : Dasher, Dancer, Prancer...

  Jim Harper : What are you doing?

  Don Keefer : Well, I'm just digesting what I just heard. I'm doing a fact check on the number of reindeer...

  Sloan Sabbith : Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Blitzen, Cupid, Donner, Vixen and somebody else.

  Neal Sampat : Rudolph.

  Sloan Sabbith : Thank you.

  Don Keefer : How many was that?

  Sloan Sabbith : Start again. Dasher...

  Jim Harper : No.

• Taylor Warren : I have a number of questions.

  Jim Harper : I'll try to answer them with the same detail and honesty you've always answered mine.

  Aubrey Lyons : What were you doing on a Sex and the City tour bus to begin with?

  Jim Harper : My girlfriend at the time liked the show and I was showing an interest in her interests.

  Taylor Warren : And Maggie didn't know you were on the bus when she shouted that she loved you?

  Jim Harper : That's not what she shouted.

  Taylor Warren : And she didn't know someone was filming it?

  Jim Harper : No.

  Taylor Warren : So it was kind of a gaffe?... Life and death and you guys can't get past "corporations are people".

  Jim Harper : How fast are we supposed to get past "Hispanics should self-deport" or "I'm not concerned with the very poor"?

  Taylor Warren : "There's a safety net there" was the end of that sentence, and plainly his concern is with the middle class.

  Jim Harper : The middle class are the very poor.

  Aubrey Lyons : The better point is we don't need clean air and water regulations. We don't need FEMA. We don't need antitrust laws. We don't need the IRS or the Department of Education or the Federal Reserve. We need freedom.

  Neal Sampat : What the fuck did you just say?

  Aubrey Lyons : If you listen to Ron Paul

  Neal Sampat : I have. He's a batty old crank who wrote instruction manuals on how to get away with shooting the black kid who's stealing your car. He's not Betty White.

  Aubrey Lyons : He didn't write those letters.

  Neal Sampat : Yes, he did. And then he signed them and then he charged money for them. So I don't give a shit if he wants to legalize weed. I can already dial the phone and have an ounce delivered to this table before the check comes.

  Hallie Shea : Then for God's sake do it.

  Jim Harper : The check will never come.

  Taylor Warren : They won't let Romney get his message out, either.

  Jim Harper : Someone should tell him if he wants to get his message out, he should consider appearing on a network where the entire audience isn't already voting for him and that if he's gonna be the businessman president, he should run on his business record instead of pretending he's never heard of it and that if faith is important to his good works and personal narrative, he shouldn't be afraid it'll creep us out.

  Taylor Warren : It's been suggested.

  Jim Harper : And?

  Taylor Warren : I was fired. I was fired tonight.

• Jim Harper : Do we even have Sarin gas?

  Jerry Dantana : We're not supposed to. They were supposed to be destroyed by 2007 according to the Chemical Weapons convention but it wasn't. We still have it. The DOD confirms that.

  Jim Harper : We may have it, but we've never used it. We didn't use it in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the First Gulf War and we were fighting people that did have...

  Jerry Dantana : Those all happened before 9/11. We torture people now. We kidnap them, wire tap them...

  Jim Harper : Drop deadly gas on civilians?

  Jerry Dantana : It happened, Jim. This is the one we know about.