On the record: Who’s inspiring? Who’s offending?

“It’s the story that I witness every single day, when I wake up in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters — two beautiful black young women — head off to school, waving goodbye to their father, the president of the United States.”

— MICHELLE OBAMA in a commencement speech that she delivered at City College in New York.

“Look at my African-American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest? You know what I’m talking about? OK.”

— DONALD TRUMP singling out an African-American person in the crowd at a rally for him in Redding, California.

“For many Americans, Caitlyn Jenner has become the reference point for their perceptions and expectations of transgender people. Unfortunately, her experience is hardly representative of the rest of the population.”

— JOHN CULLEN, the coordinator of outreach for the Susan B. Anthony Center at the University of Rochester, and his colleague NICK KASPER writing for Newsweek.

“People can shout at the parents and people can shout at the zoo. The fact is that a gorilla that just celebrated his birthday has been killed.”

— ANTHONY SETA, an animal rights activist in Cincinnati, who helped organize a vigil for a gorilla who was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 4-year-old boy entered the primate’s habitat.

“The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die.”

— PASTOR ROGER JIMENEZ, preaching about the Orlando massacre.

“What kind of a man roots for people to get thrown out of their house? I’ll tell you exactly what kind of man does that. It is a man who cares about no one but himself — a small insecure money-grubber who doesn’t care who gets hurt so long as he makes a profit off it.”

— U.S. SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN delivering a 10-minute invective on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a Washington gala two weeks ago. Warren has not ruled out joining Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s ticket as vice president.

“I, Terry E. Branstad, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby encourage all Iowans to join this historical 99 County Bible Reading Marathon and, furthermore, encourage individuals and families in Iowa to read through the Bible on a daily basis each year until the Lord comes.”

— Iowa’s Republican GOV. TERRY BRANSTAD in a controversial proclamation that was described by the Iowa ACLU as precisely the “sort of government overreaching and endorsement of a particular faith” that the U.S. and Iowa constitutions ban.

“If you could decide what 40 people you would put on the spacecraft who would save humanity, how many of those would be same-sex couples?”

— U.S. REP. LOUIE GOHMERT, R-Texas, warning of the reproductive uselessness of gay astronauts if the world ended.