Craziest Republican Quotes of the 21st Century

Sometimes there's a beauty in seeing the similarities between yourself and the people across the aisle. Other times, the people across the aisle say such mind-numbingly stupid things that there's no point in calling their words anything other than nonsense. Relive the last two decades of Republican mediocrity with the following collection of crazy quotes by renowned right-wing nutjobs.

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Donald Trump on Using Nukes

"Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?" –Donald Trump, reportedly asking a foreign policy adviser three times during a meeting why the U.S. couldn’t use its nuclear weapons stockpile, according to MSNBC's Joe Scarborough

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Rush Limbaugh on Nuclear Weapons

''The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them.''

—Rush Limbaugh

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Donald Trump on Shooting Somebody

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's, like, incredible." –Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa as the audience laughed, January 23, 2016

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Mitt Romney on Believing in America

''I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love.''

—Mitt Romney (January 2012)

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Donald Trump Hints at Hillary Clinton Assassination

"If she gets to pick her judges – nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people. Maybe there is. I don’t know." –Donald Trump, in what many interpreted to be a suggestion that someone might shoot Hillary Clinton, her Supreme Court picks, or both, Wilmington, North Carolina campaign rally, Aug. 9, 2016

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Ann Coulter on Blowing Up the New York Times

''My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.''

—Ann Coulter

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Bill O'Reilly on Flooding the United Nations

''I just wish Katrina had only hit the United Nations building, nothing else, just had flooded them out, and I wouldn't have rescued them.''

—Bill O'Reilly, on his radio show, Sept. 14, 2005

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Glenn Beck on Families of 9/11 Victims

''When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining.''

—Glenn Beck, Sept. 9, 2005

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Paul Ryan's Slip of the Tongue

''We're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people.''

—Rep. Paul Ryan, March 12, 2013

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Trump Calls on Russia to Hack Clinton and Sabotage Election

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press." –Donald Trump, calling on Russian espionage services to intervene in the U.S. election and help sabotage Hillary Clinton. The emails in question were deemed "personal," but Trump has previously said he thinks they contain sensitive intelligence, meaning that Trump is hoping Vladimir Putin gains access to classified government information (July 27, 2016)

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Mitt Romney on "Corporations Are People"

''Corporations are people, my friend... of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People's pockets. Human beings, my friend.''

—GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to a heckler at the Iowa State Fair who suggested that taxes should be raised on corporations to help balance the budget, Aug. 11, 2011

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Sharron Angle on "Second Amendment Remedies"

''I hope that's not where we're going, but you know if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.''

—Sharron Angle, the Tea Party candidate who won the Republican nomination in Nevada's Senate primary, floating the possibility of armed insurrection, interview with right-wing talk radio host Lars Larson in Portland, OR, January 2010

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Rush Limbaugh on Feminism

''Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.''

—Rush Limbaugh

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Mitt Romney on the 47 Percent

''There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. ... My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.''

—Mitt Romney, in leaked comments from a fundraiser in May 2012

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Mitt Romney on the Poor

''I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.''

—Mitt Romney (January 2012)

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Glenn Beck Calls Obama A Racist

''This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for White people or the White culture....I'm not saying he doesn't like White people, I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.''

—Glenn Beck, on President Obama, sparking an advertiser exodus from his FOX News show, July 28, 2009

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Pat Robertson on the Feminist Agenda

''The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.''

—Pat Robertson

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Ann Coulter on Liberals

''Liberals love America like O.J. loved Nicole.''

—Ann Coulter

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Ann Coulter on Liberals

''Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots.''

—Ann Coulter

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Glenn Beck on Climate Change

''Some may believe we're on the road to the Hitler youth.''

—Glenn Beck, on teaching kids about climate change, Fox News's Glenn Beck show, Feb. 5, 2009

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Glenn Beck on His Inner Demons

''You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one — I can't speak for you, but I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show.''

—Glenn Beck, Nov. 6, 2006

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Rush Limbaugh on Obama and Health Care

''Obama's got a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook ... Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate.''

—Rush Limbaugh, Aug. 6, 2009

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Sarah Palin on Putin

''As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where— where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border.''

—Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview with CBS's Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008

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Sarah Palin on Quitting

''It may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,' but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out.''

—Sarah Palin, quitting her job as governor, adding, ''Only dead fish go with the flow,'' July 3, 2009

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Sarah Palin on "Death Panels"

''The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel.'''

—Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama's health care reform plan, Aug. 7, 2009

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Antonin Scalia on Orgies

''I even accept for the sake of argument that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.''

—Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

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Glenn Beck on Forest Fire Victims

''I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.''

—Glenn Beck, on why people who lost their homes in forest fires in California had it coming, Oct. 22, 2007

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Michelle Bachmann Calls for a New McCarthyism

''I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?''

—Rep. Michelle Bachmann, calling for a new McCarthyism, Oct. 2008

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Lamar Smith on the Greatest Threat to America

''The greatest threat to America is not necessarily a recession or even another terrorist attack. The greatest threat to America is a liberal media bias.''

—Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), June 4, 2009

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Michele Bachmann on Swine Flu

''I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.''

—Rep. Michele Bachmann , on the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak that happened when Gerald Ford was president, April 28, 2009

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Christine O'Donnell on Religion

''I was dabbling into every other kind of religion before I became a Christian. I was dabbling in witchcraft, I've dabbled in Buddhism. I would have become a Hare Krishna but I didn't want to become a vegetarian. And that is honestly the reason why -- because I'm Italian, I love meatballs!''

—Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, on ''Politically Incorrect,'' July 19, 1999

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Virginia Foxx on Health Care Reform

''I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country.''

—Rep. Virginia Foxx (R.-North Carolina), on health care reform legislation, Nov. 2, 2009

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Rush Limbaugh on the Women's Movement

''I'm a huge supporter of women. What I'm not is a supporter of liberalism. Feminism is what I oppose. Feminism has led women astray. I love the women's movement—especially when walking behind it.''

—Rush Limbaugh, responding to criticism that he is sexist and defending his selection as one of the judges at the 2010 Miss America Pageant, ''Fox News' Fox & Friends,'' February 3, 2010

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Michelle Bachmann on Carbon Monoxide

''Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.''

—Rep. Michelle Bachmann, April, 2009

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Virginia Foxx on Being Fooled

''Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you.''

—Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina)

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Ann Coulter on Liberals

Ann Coulter: ''You will find liberals always rooting for savages against civilization.''

Bill O'Reilly: ''They didn't root for the Nazis against civilization.''

Coulter: ''Oh yes they did...It was only when Hitler invaded their precious Soviet Union that at the last minute they came in and suddenly started saying, 'Oh no, now you have to fight Hitler.'''

—'The O'Reilly Factor,' May 7, 2010

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Sarah Palin on Socialized Medicine

''We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn't that ironic?''

—Sarah Palin, admitting that her family used to get treatment in Canada's single-payer health care system, despite having demonized such government-run programs as socialized medicine that will lead to death-panel-like rationing, March 6, 2010

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Rush Limbaugh on Exercise

''Exercise freaks ... are the ones putting stress on the health care system.''

—Rush Limbaugh, June 12, 2009

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Glenn Beck on African-Americans

''African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term. I mean, that's not a race. Your ancestry is from Africa and now you live in America.''

—Glenn Beck, on his radio show, Jan. 7, 2010

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Rush Limbaugh on Obama

''[Obama] wouldn't have been voted president if he weren't Black. Somebody asked me over the weekend why does somebody earn a lot of money have a lot of money, because she's Black. It was Oprah. No, it can't be. Yes, it is. There's a lot of guilt out there, show we're not racists, we'll make this person wealthy and big and famous and so forth.... If Obama weren't Black he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu or he'd be teaching Saul Alinsky constitutional law or lecturing on it in Chicago.''

—Rush Limbaugh, July 6, 2010

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Louis Gohmert on Hate Crimes

''If you're oriented toward animals, bestiality, then, you know, that's not something that can be used, held against you or any bias be held against you for that. Which means you'd have to strike any laws against bestiality, if you're oriented toward corpses, toward children, you know, there are all kinds of perversions ... pedophiles or necrophiliacs or what most would say is perverse sexual orientations.''

—Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), arguing that a hate crimes bill passed by Congress would lead to Nazism and legalization of necrophilia, pedophilia, and bestiality, Oct. 6, 2009

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Steve King on Health Care Reform

''They intend to vote on the Sabbath, during Lent, to take away the liberty that we have right from God. This is an affront to God.''

—Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), on Congress voting on the health care bill, interview with Glenn Beck, March 18, 2010

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Andre Bauer on Food Assistance Programs

''My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better.''

—South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, arguing that government food assistance to lower-income residents, including food stamps or free school lunches, encourages a culture of dependence, Jan 24. 2010

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Joe Wilson to Obama: "You Lie!"

''You lie!''

—Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), shouting out a retort during Obama's address before a joint session of Congress, after Obama said his health care plan would not cover illegal immigrants, Sept. 9, 2009

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Christine O'Donnell on Being A Witch

''I dabbled into witchcraft—I never joined a coven. But I did, I did... I dabbled into witchcraft. I hung around people who were doing these things. I'm not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do... One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's little blood there and stuff like that. We went to a movie and then had a midnight picnic on a satanic altar.''

—Failed Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, in a 1999 appearance on Bill Maher's 'Politically Incorrect'