Politics & Power Quote by Scott McClellan

A masterclass in saying nothing while sounding like you’re inside the room. Scott McClellan’s line isn’t built to inform; it’s built to manage exposure. “I do expect” performs modesty and reasonableness, a little verbal flak jacket that turns a concrete question into a personal forecast. If it’s wrong later, it was only an expectation. If it’s right, he looks plugged in. That’s the press secretary’s favorite kind of accuracy: deniable.

The phrase “will say something” is the real tell. Not “will address the issue,” not “will clarify,” not “will take responsibility.” Something. A placeholder noun that gives reporters a crumb without committing the White House to a posture. It’s pre-spin: lowering the bar so whatever the President offers can be framed as responsiveness, even if it’s evasive.

Then there’s the tangle of “at the beginning of his remarks today, at the conversation.” The redundancy reads like careful improvisation under pressure, a split-second attempt to avoid naming the event too precisely or promising a specific segment of time. It keeps the message flexible: remarks, conversation, beginning - any of these can be stretched in practice.

Context matters: McClellan spent years as a public face for a presidency that treated message discipline as governance. This kind of language is an institutional reflex, signaling, “We hear you, we’re not giving you anything yet, stay tuned.” The intent isn’t to communicate news; it’s to buy time while looking transparent.