Outbreak (1995)

J.T. Walsh: Chief of Staff

Photos 

Quotes 

• Chief of Staff : Alright, alright, please. Please. The president's ETA from the East Asian Economic Summit is about 20 hours from now. He wants a recommendation by then from this group. Now, as I understand it, you want to firebomb the town of Cedar Creek, California, population 2,600, with something called a fuel air bomb, the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in our arsenal. The way it works: it explodes, sucks in all available oxygen to the core, vaporizes everything within a mile of ground zero, men, women, children, and one airborne virus. Destruction complete, case closed, crisis over.

  [Takes a copy of the Constitution from his pocket] 

  Chief of Staff : This is the Constitution of the United States. I've read it cover to cover. I don't find anything in it about vaporizing 2,600 American citizens. But it does say, several times, that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process. So, a couple of things before Clean Sweep is even considered. One: unanimous, unwavering support for the president on this. And I mean, public. You're going to stand there shoulder to shoulder with him. He goes down, you go down. And the second thing is, I want an army of experts citing hundreds and thousands of lab experiments telling any idiot with a camera that there was no other way! Got that? Hmm? No member of this government is going to go sneaking off to the Washington Post, telling them how they were the "sole voice of opposition". If there is a voice of opposition out there, I want him in here, now!

  [Throws photos of virus victims on the table] 

  Chief of Staff : Those are the citizens of Cedar Creek. Go on, look at them. These are not statistics, ladies and gentlemen. They're flesh and blood! And I want you to burn those into your memories. Because those images should haunt us until the day we die.