I've got a pen and I've got a phone - and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When it comes down to hardball, we have a veto pen, and I've used it in the past, and I expect we will have opportunity to use it in the future. That's the nature of the business.
If I'm just at the White House, I have meetings in my office, I sign letters, I plan different things. Late in the afternoon, I'll quit working and wait for my husband to get home.
There'll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time, unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.
I like to write paper mail - nobody does that anymore - with my pen pals.
You always hear about delegation, but people make the mistake of delegating and not following up. I give authority, but I stay in touch. Otherwise it doesn't work.
But this is neither here nor there why do I mention it? Ask my pen, it governs me, I govern not it.
To say that I'm going to veto something that I haven't read is just - or sign something that I haven't read - I don't think is good policy for any chief executive.
Executive orders are meant for occasional use, not to force something through that the people's elected representatives aren't going to make law.
The pen is an instrument of discovery rather than just a recording implement. If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you're simply using a pen to record what you have thought out.
So much better to write pen on paper; you can do it anywhere, say, while stuck at the airport.