Designated Survivor (TV Series)

#thesystemisbroken (2019)

Adan Canto: Aaron Shore

Quotes 

• Isabel Pardo : I need five minutes with the president.

  Mars Harper : Not happening today.

  Isabel Pardo : When I was hired, I was told he wanted to make the Office of Social Innovation a priority.

  Mars Harper : He does. We all do. Who wouldn't?

  Isabel Pardo : I have a proposal to repurpose some USAID funding for anti-parasitic drugs in Africa. Fifty cents a year per child...

  Aaron Shore : [approaching]  I wanna update you before the principals' meeting.

  Isabel Pardo : I'm talking to him.

  Mars Harper : Thank you, Isabel.

  [leaving with Adam] 

  Mars Harper : She doesn't appear to like you very much.

  Aaron Shore : Appearances can be deceiving.

• Mars Harper : What news from the national security advisor?

  Aaron Shore : Puerto Rico. The hurricane has near incapacitated the saline industry, specifically the production of sodium chloride injection bags.

  Mars Harper : That's pretty specific.

  Aaron Shore : It could put us in a vulnerable position.

  Mars Harper : How so?

  Aaron Shore : Unexpected military conflict arises, we could be left short-handed. We need to find a way to shore up the medical products manufacturing sector.

  Mars Harper : I'll look into it.

• Seth Wright : Which monster invented this?

  Emily Rhodes : A genius monster of Cincinnati.

  Seth Wright : Seriously, who puts chili over spaghetti?

  Aaron Shore : Hey, don't judge. I was in India, street vendors were hawking steamed hornets on top of fried snails.

  Seth Wright : Oh, come on, I am not responsible for the cuisine of my people, okay? I've never even been there. But if you are gonna eat hornets, I hear steamed is the way to go.

• Tom Kirkman : Aaron, thank you for making us aware of the Puerto Rico issue. It could easily have been overlooked.

  Aaron Shore : Actually, sir, we may be overlooking something else. The industry on the island needs help, sure, but we could be doing more in the way of humanitarian aid for the local population. A little goes a long way there.

  Tom Kirkman : I'll talk to the sponsors, add some language to the rider.

  Aaron Shore : Thank you, sir.

  Emily Rhodes : Since when do you care about Puerto Rico?

  Aaron Shore : I care about all unincorporated U.S. territories.

  Emily Rhodes : Right. Isn't your new girlfriend Puerto Rican?

  Aaron Shore : Oh, you keeping tabs on me now?

  Tom Kirkman : Okay, enough, you two. As much as I enjoy this conviviality, I had an ulterior motive to bring you all here tonight.

• Tom Kirkman : I know that I surprised all of you with my announcement to run. And I'm sorry I didn't share that decision with you. But each one of you has been with me since the beginning of this ride, Emily even longer. And since Alex died, you've become the people I trust the most. So I need your opinion, your advice. This election, can I win it?

  Emily Rhodes : [simultaneously]  Yes.

  Aaron Shore : It's a wide-open race.

  Tom Kirkman : Okay, okay. As well-intentioned as your bullshit responses are, come on, I need you to be honest. Tell me what you really think. Tell me the truth.

  Seth Wright : Uh, it's not impossible. But, uh, and this has nothing to do with you, I don't see a clear path forward for any Independent candidate. There are too many structural obstacles for you to circumvent, particularly without the support of a party organization. This is one of the reasons a lot of people are jumping ship. They're looking for their next jobs.

  Aaron Shore : As a member of the Republican Party, Moss will score conservatives and the older demographic, and those people vote. The Democratic nominee will take the progressives, and if it's Darby's, to be blunt, she'll pick up African-Americans, and, you gotta assume, other racial minorities. It's a tough needle to thread. And think of it this way. You could punch your ticket as the guy who put the coutry back on track after an historic tragedy. Posterity will remember you well. But if you run, and if you lose, if you come in third, that's your legacy.

  Tom Kirkman : Yeah. Emily, what do you think?

  Emily Rhodes : I think you can do it. But I think you're asking the wrong thing. "Can I win?" makes the question about you, when the question should be about the country. So it's not "can I win?", it's "Why am I running in the first place?". So why are you?

• Mars Harper : Hey, buddy. I'm just as disappointed as you.

  Aaron Shore : Yeah, but what happened? I thought we had the votes, man.

  Mars Harper : I thought so, too. But legislation does get unpredictable in election years. Best I can tell, Darby took a couple of Democrats with her.

  Aaron Shore : Shit.

  Mars Harper : On a positive note, I did find a workaround for your saline situation. FDA is gonna let us import medical product from Ireland.

  Aaron Shore : Yeah, how is that supposed to help Puerto Ricans?

  Mars Harper : It doesn't, but it helps us. So, you're welcome.

  Aaron Shore : Mars, the whole point of this was...

  Mars Harper : Listen. Don't go behind my back to the president.

  Aaron Shore : Mars, I didn't go behind your back.

  Mars Harper : Asking for humanitarian aid is not your bailiwick. We have a history, yeah. But that doesn't mean that you get to cut the line. Everything goes through me.