“Talking about greatness and reaching greatness are two different things, and cooperation is necessary to accomplish that objective. And we haven't seen that the last two years, very frankly, Bret.  But… the President… reportedly is going to speak about working cooperatively towards a better America. But, what we’ve seen over the last two years is a President that has led on a very deep tax cut that was for the very wealthy in America, not for the average working person in America. We have seen a policy of trade that he said was going to bring a lot of jobs back to America. We have seen that not happen.  We have seen a shutdown of government which, ironically, Ms. Sanders just said that they didn't want that, but in fact the President said I’m gonna take responsibility, I welcome it, and he said a good shut down might be good for America. It was bad for America. It cost $11 billion - at least - in GDP lost. So, I hope to hear a speech that says we can work together and we will work together. But, very frankly, the speech is not important. What is important is the performance, the deeds, the actions, the cooperation that occurs.”

On CBS News

"…What I want to hear from the President is what the White House has been telling us [the State of the Union address is] going to be, and that is a speech that tries to bring people together, not be divisive, not be confrontational, but encourage cooperative efforts to reach solutions to the problems that confront our country. That’s what I’d like to hear and I hope to hear, but it has not been my experience in the past."

On Bloomberg TV

“What we have heard in the past has been confrontational and divisive, in my view. I’d like to hear… about how we can come together; how we can compromise; how we can agree on moving forward… on the issues that working people in this country care really about and what the election was about. For instance, [protections for people with] pre-existing conditions. A lot of Republicans said they wanted to protect pre-existing conditions. This Administration over the last two years has done everything to undermine the availability and accessibility of health care to average Americans. They passed a tax bill that undermined working Americans and greatly advantaged the wealthiest in America. They shut down the government, which hurt a lot of workers… So, we hope to hear some positive things about how we can cooperate; how we can work together; how we can invest in the economy; invest in infrastructure; and yes, bring prescription [drug] prices down… That is not necessarily my expectation, but that is what I hope to hear.”

“Shutting down the government of the United States is a negative, stupid thing to do, which causes great disruption, not only among federal employees, but among all those who are served by the federal government. Our allies around the world must think something is wrong in America if it is shutting its government down. So, I would hope that if we cannot reach agreement by Friday or over the weekend, that we at least extend government authorization for another two or three weeks while we are negotiating.”