Scandal (TV Series)

The State of the Union (2014)

Darby Stanchfield: Abby Whelan

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mellie Grant : I don't know who you are, but you are obviously some sort of desperate hail Mary from my husband, or from Cyrus, or from someone else who thinks there is a chance in hell of getting me to put on that stupid dress and go to that stupid speech. I'm not interested in whatever it is you came here to say, so save it and go away. It's not happening.

  Abby Whelan : Children die, Mrs. Grant. I don't have children, so you may think it's horrible for me to say that, and maybe it is, but it's also a fact that of all the millions of Americans who will be watching and listening to the State of the Union Address tonight, there are thousands of people out there whose children have died, just like yours. But unlike you, they didn't get to spend three months flipping through trash and eating potato chips. They got three days to grieve, three weeks if they were lucky, or they would lose their jobs. And make no mistake, Mrs. Grant, you have a job. You're the First Lady of the United States, and it might not pay, but it is a job.

  Abby Whelan : And if Jackie Kennedy could be in a car with her husband's brains splattered across her lap one minute, and standing next to LBJ as he was sworn in to replace her dead husband just 99 minutes later, you can put on a dress, and stand in your private box, and show all the people in our nation who share the horrible burden of losing a child with you, that the First Family may be devastated, but it has not forgotten the American people who voted for your husband, and who need to see that you're okay - whether or not it's the truth. That is what I came here to say.