Elizabeth McCord quotes from Madam Secretary

Elizabeth

I have your short list on my desk.

Mike

I have it right here. I picked it up off the pile and dusted it off. You have to find a replacement, because the President of the United States wouldn't go back on her word.

Russell

There are protesters in the stands.

Stevie

Can't they leave the politics out of baseball?

Elizabeth

They're just exercising their First Amendment rights.

Elizabeth

Are we taking this healthy thing too far?

Henry

I wouldn't say that. It's just a lot of chewing.

Russell

The President's job is to lead, not to explain or ask for support.

Elizabeth

When you put it that way, you sound like the patriarchy telling me to do things the way they've always been done.

Russell

If there were no Checkers, there would be no Nixon.

Elizabeth

Actually, that's a good argument for not getting a dog.

Elizabeth

What we're doing has never been done before. First one through the wall always gets bloody.

I don't care about bloody. I just don't want to be ineffective.

Elizabeth

The bombing was a long time ago. I feel like I should be over it. And then there's this thing where it's like, if I'm talking about it, I'm bringing it into the house. Like I can keep it at bay if I don't give it a name.

Henry

This is why we have got to educate people about this issue.

Henry

If you were in her shoes, you'd have turned that flash drive over to the FBI even if it cost you an election. If there's one thing I know about you, you are scrupulously honest.

Elizabeth

It's not directly analogous. Daisy thought she was protecting me and the country from Miller.

Henry

True. But the thing about ethics is they can't be cherry picked. Daisy convinced herself that she was doing the right thing when she wasn't. Don't you do it too.

Elizabeth

Daisy is more than an employee. She's a friend.

Henry

Then forgive her. But you're the President of the United States. You have to let her go.

Elizabeth

You could have heard a pin drop.

Henry

They sure made a lot of noise once they got outside.

Russell

Circling the wagons, whining about their freedoms. Never gets old.

Elizabeth

Except Valerie Gillian is in jail for contempt, not for something she wrote. This is about finding the truth, not about censorship.

Elizabeth

You should have disclosed it.

Daisy

If it was any other candidate, I would have. But Miller is a racist and a xenophobe and a liar. I did nothing wrong. But I knew he would lie and distort and say there was collusion. And because he was a Republican candidate for President, millions of people would have believed him. And if he sunk your campaign and got elected, I wouldn't be able to look my daughter in the eye.

There is only one thing your Chief of Staff couldn't arrange. A meeting with Beyonce.

Elizabeth

Presidential powers only go so far.

Elizabeth

You know what pioneers get to accomplish? Being first. That's it.

Henry

Some get more than that.

Elizabeth

Not anyone who matters. Susan B Anthony fought for women's suffrage but died 5 years before it came to be. Martin Luther King didn't live to see many of his dreams come true. People who light the sparks don't often get to sit by the fire.

Elizabeth

That is a partisan move for a department that is supposed to be apolitical.

Mike

On the down low, please, Olivia. Otherwise the President looks like the captain of the Good Ship Paranoia.

Henry

Reagan bailed.

Elizabeth

Because he was shot.

Henry

You're nervous because you have to tell jokes and you're not funny.

Russell

Can we discuss what you plan to offer first?

Elizabeth

We're trying to prevent a shooting war in the Middle East. Can we discuss how it plays in the press later?