Top 40 Helen Thomas Quotes

Truman fired the popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur because he disobeyed orders in the Korean War. Johnson knew that he had reached the endgame in Vietnam when Gen. William Westmoreland, the top commander in Vietnam, requested 240,000 more troops in 1968 for the prolonged war that also could not be won.

Presidents hate the press. They hate me most of the time.

I think Obama is handling his image very well, but I think he lacks boldness.

Presidential power was overruled by the high bench in July 1974, when President Nixon was ordered to turn over some audio tapes of his White House conversations, including the ‘smoking gun’ tape of June 23, 1972, that revealing the Watergate cover up.

Every president thinks that all information that comes to the White House is their private preserve after they all promise an open administration on the campaign trail, but some are more secretive than others. Some want to lock down everything.

The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I’ll kill myself. All we need is one more liar.

I’m of Arab background.

In Plains, I saw Jimmy Carter as he really is – a nice, decent man… in terms of compassionate contribution to society, he certainly has proven to be our best past president.

The sudden ending of a White House career all seems so unceremonious for aides who have personally sacrificed a lot – and sometimes even bent their conscience – to do the president’s bidding.

As a reporter having covered him for eight years in the White House, I am sure the press could have done a better job if we had known the real Ronald Reagan.

I’m decrepit but I don’t want to give up, and I love my work.

I think I’ll work all my life. When you’re having fun, why stop having fun?

I love my work, and I think that I was so lucky to pick a profession where it’s a joy to go to work every day.

People will never know how hard it is to get information, especially if it’s locked up behind official doors where, if politicians had their way, they’d stamp ‘top secret’ on the color of the walls.

I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive.

Everyone with a cell phone thinks they’re a photographer. Everyone with a laptop thinks they’re a journalist. But they have no training, and they have no idea of what we keep to in terms of standards, as in what’s far out and what’s reality. And they have no dedication to truth.

I got into the Kennedy White House because at the time I was president of the Women’s National Press Club, and they assigned me to cover the early days of the Kennedy campaign. Jackie especially. Everyone was interested in the family.

All presidents rail against the press. It goes with the turf.

When you’re in the news business, you always expect the unexpected.

We won’t really know what will happen until it happens.

I wrote that President Bush is passing on to President-elect Obama two wars and an economic debacle. I call it a depression. And he is arming Israel against the Palestinians in every way in Gaza.

If we care about the children, the grandchildren, the future generations, we need to make sure that they do not become the cannon fodder of the future.

Maybe the Jefferson case will give members of Congress second thoughts the next time they get ready to legislate away the rights of ordinary Americans.

There are better ways we can transform this virulent hatred – by living our ideals, the Peace Corps, exchange students, teachers, exporting our music, poetry, blue jeans.

War makes strange bedfellows.

We are the only institution in our society that can question a president on a regular basis and make him accountable. Otherwise, he could be king.

I’m covering the worst president in American history.

The White House used to belong to the American people. At least that’s what I learned from history books and from covering every president starting with John F. Kennedy.

I had a lot of fun bantering back and forth with Kennedy. But for ease and comfort, it would be Gerald Ford. He was a down-home type. I came from the Midwest and he came from the Midwest. He was nonaggressive and kindly.

President Bush has asserted the right to wiretap and eavesdrop on any American without a warrant in the name of fighting terrorism. He has asserted presidential power beyond stated constitutional rights, and there is no Republican gutsy enough to call his hand.

This is the worst President ever. He George W. Bush is the worst President in all of American history.

I’ve never covered the president in any way other than that he is ultimately responsible.

You don’t spread democracy with a barrel of a gun.

Every President hates the Press.

We have organized lobbyists in favor of Israel. You can’t open your mouth. I can call the president of the United States anything in the book, but if you say one thing about Israel, and you’re off limits.

I think that presidents deserve to be questioned. Maybe irreverently, most of the time. Bring ’em down a size. You see a president, ask a question. You have one chance in the barrel. Don’t blow it.

I don’t think a tough question is disrespectful.

I don’t think there are any rude questions.

I covered two presidents, LBJ and Nixon, who could no longer convince, persuade, or govern, once people had decided they had no credibility, but we seem to be more tolerant now of what I think we should not tolerate.

All of us who covered the Reagans agreed that President Reagan was personable and charming, but I’m not so certain he was nice. It’s hard for me to think of anyone as ‘nice’ when I hear him say ‘The homeless are homeless because they want to be homeless.’