If it takes talking about unpleasant truths to change Washington, then so be it.
— Scott McClellan
I was raised on the values of speaking up and making a positive difference in a very political family that believed in the importance of public service.
As press secretary, I spent countless hours defending the administration from the podium in the White House briefing room.
Waging an unnecessary war is a grave mistake.
When I was knowingly misled but only learned that much later, that's really when I started to become disillusioned at the White House.
I'm a centrist.
The permanent campaign is inherently deceptive.
In survey after survey, the Iraqi people say, 'We want to choose our leaders.'
I'm someone who believes in centrist governing philosophy.
I have had a career in public service.
I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be.
The Iraq war was not necessary.
All I can say is what I believe.
I'm done with my job. It was my job to be the advocate and spokesman for the President of the United States.
Well, uh, all people - all, I think all human begins, uh, have good attributes, and they also have their flaws.
A free and prosperous Iraq will be a major blow to the terrorists and their desire to establish a safe haven in Iraq where they can plan and plot attacks.
My wife and I look for ways to always support the troops, including sending care packages regularly to them.
I remember my mom saying to me that what your friends do is one thing, but what you do could be on the front page of the paper.
When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the President and unable to comment. But I promised reporters and the public that I would someday tell the whole story of what I knew.
I'm glad to share my views.
I believe in working together to solve the problems we've got. And we need to get rid of the venom in the political atmosphere in D.C. It's a poisonous atmosphere.
Well I think that you have to be open and honest in order to learn from your mistakes and be able to correct them in the future to understand what would happen to take things off course. And if we don't address these issues openly and honestly then we don't learn.
The president said, 'You've got to vote your conscience.
I do expect that the President will say something at the beginning of his remarks today, at the conversation.
