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Mudline Archive

STICKS, STONES, BROKEN BONES

During the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential race, we began collecting negative soundbites and posting them weekly on a MUDLINE ticker, as a temporary election feature. But in the aftermath of that tumultuous contest we realized that the tone of public discourse was unlikely to improve, and elected to continue the feature. Unfortunately, we were right; two decades later, incivility is hotter than ever. If you just can’t get enough snark on social media, this mud’s for you.

  • November 5, 2026

    ....CNN's Van Jones: "You join the cult, at some point you go to Jonestown. That's where you are tonight, Republicans."....Meghan McCain on election: "F***ing bloodbath...An extinction-level event."....Heather Cox Richardson: "This election isn't about choosing a flavor of ice cream you like. It's about choosing between ice cream and rat poison."....Sen. Jon Ossoff: "The American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption, and incompetence of the failed lame-duck President."....Jonathan Alter on Trump: "He's like a feral animal who can wreak havoc in many different areas. But his cult is dead."....Megyn Kelly on Trump: "Everyone knows he can't handle the truth of losing. He's allergic to that word."....conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Trump: "I think he's the ultimate Democrat sleeper cell, and he works for them."....Chris Christie on Vivek Ramaswamy: "He's going to be sent to the dustbin of history."....James Carville on Trump: "You're right. I've got Trump Derangement Syndrome. I hate the mother****er. And you know what? I don't want to get rid of it! I want to get worse!"....CNN contributor Scott Jennings: "There's a political science term for what's happening. It's called a country ass-whoopin'."....Fox host Jesse Watters: "Trump is like your wife. On some days you don't really like him too much."....Jonah Goldberg: "The biggest loser last night was JD Vance. He is Donald Trump with twice the bigotry and half the charm."....Nikki Haley: "You just elected a handful of socialists, socialist candidates that believe in getting rid of law enforcement, getting rid of prisons, basically getting rid of private insurance."....Karoline Leavitt on election: "Unfortunately, I think the American people forgot about the good policy, maybe listened to the lying media on the other side, that is definitely in the back seat of the Democratic party."....Trump on SC Democratic senate nominee Dr. Annie Andrews: "Tranny Annie."....Sen. Darline Graham on Andrews: "She's just plain old batshit crazy."....Trump on Rep. Ilhan Omar: "Garbage...Scum...A troublemaker...A terrible person...A very dishonest person who hates our country."....JD Vance on The Independent's Andrew Feinberg: "An imbecile journalist."....Sen. Ted Cruz on El-Sayed, Talarico, and pastor Adam Hamilton: "Tofu-eating charlatans."....protester yelling at Trump at rally: "Butterscotch Shitler!"....Trump on El-Sayed: "He wants our country to go to Sharia Law."....El-Sayed: "Donald Trump is an idiot...He has one genius, which is the genius of getting attention. Because his dad didn't give him enough."....JD Vance on El-Sayed: "A bit of a psychopath."....El-Sayed on Vance: "A smart person but he has no actual soul."....Trump on El-Sayed: "He'll have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed into the Senate."....Stephen King on Trump: "The biggest RINO of all...A monument to selfishness."....Trump: "Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country."....Trump to reporter whose question he didn't like: "You're way out of shape. You are disgusting...You look like hell...Reuters is terrible, by the way."....Trump on protesters at rally: "They get paid $250. Losers. Losers. Losers."....Trump on pre-election polls: "They said Donald Trump is polling at 42% -- 42%! Double that and add another 20!"....Trump on polls: "They were made up...I think the New York Times should be prosecuted."....Fox host Greg Gutfeld: "The economy, Iran -- how do the Dems fix that? They can't even fix their own party."....Obama on Trump: "He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere."....Trump on Obama: "He's not a smart guy."....Trump on Dr. Annie Andrews: "She's a defunder. We call them 'defunders.' That means she's a defunder."....

  • October 19, 2026

    ....Trump, at rally: "Just get out and vote. If you do that, we're going to win and we're going to win big and we're going to shove it up their ass."....Trump on "the Corrupt Media Outlets," including CNN, WaPo, The Guardian, the NY Times, Forbes, ABC, and NBC: "I call them out, but they should really be called out by the Courts, and should not be allowed to enter the White House premises, or Press Room, because they are CORRUPT and DISHONEST!"....Trump on Fox: "We don't like stupid Jessica Tarlov, and all the others that are forced down MAGA's throats."....Van Jones: "How much of Trump's administration is just affirmative action for nice-looking White people?"....Lawrence O'Donnell on Speaker Mike Johnson: "He spends every working moment of his life as a coward. He has taken, in effect, an oath of cowardice to Donald Trump."....Sen. Thom Tillis on Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick: "Nuttier than squirrel shit."....Sen. John Kennedy to David J. Bier at hearing: "You trigger my gag reflex."....Sen. Tammy Duckworth: "I'm tired of fixing shit Republicans break."....Jon Stewart on Sen. Susan Collins: "The avatar for wanting to do something about the policies her votes have enabled."....Trump on Michigan senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed: "A jihadist."....Trump on those opposed to new WH ballroom: "Very disloyal to our country."....Trump: "People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!"....Trump on Rep. Ilhan Omar: "She's a disaster...She comes from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet."....MTG on Trump: "YOU are the snake that you warned us all about in the poem you read over and over...You are the deep state, the Epstein class, and America last."....Sen. Jon Ossoff on Rep. Mike Collins: "You hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office."....Sen. Josh Hawley on former special prosecutor Jack Smith: "The worst abuse of prosecutorial power in the history of the United States."....Sen. Eric Schmitt on Smith: "You will go down as a total dirtbag."....Sen. Ted Cruz on Smith: "Jabar from 'Les Miserables' would look at you with astonishment."....WH communications director Steven Cheung: "Jack Smith is a scumbag."....Trump on Epstein File protesters: "They're all paid. They get paid by the lefties -- in order to destroy our country. They're scum."....Trump on Detroit: "One of the most corrupt voting areas in the United States, if not the world. It is strictly Third World!"....Trump on NY State AG Letitia James: "She's totally corrupt...I feel badly for whoever she's looking at cause they won't get a fair shake."....Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump: "He really likes naming things...You know that new ballroom he's trying to build? Felony Hall."....James Carville on Sen. Tommy Tuberville: "Is he dumber than concrete or is he dumber than a box of rocks?"....Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: "He might be the most insecure person in the history of the world."....

  • September 25, 2026

    ....Joe Rogan: "Trump reporters are f*cking nuts, man."....Karl Rove: "The GOP's stables need a good cleaning."....MTG: "I think MAGA is dead."....Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed: "I think what you're seeing here is MAGA eating itself."....Tucker Carlson: "I wouldn't vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint."....Aaron Rupar on Trump admin: "They worked harder to cover up the Epstein files than they ever did to lower grocery prices."....Gov. Tim Walz: "We've got a feeble-minded trigger-happy president."....Guy Benson on Walz: "An incompetent dunce."....Kevin D. Williamson on Trump: "A man who seems to have suffered the spiritual equivalent of an ischemic stroke when he was about 27 and never to have recovered the full use of his faculties."....Trump on SC Justices Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh: "These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court. They are merely a shell of their original selves."....Rep. Stephen Lynch to Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent: "I'll be honest -- I don't think the president could spell 'AI' if I gave him the first letter."....Trump on Cuba: "It's an absolutely failed state, it's failing like never before, and it will fall."....The Mooch on Trump's rationale for a second term: "'I didn't steal enough money the first time. I'm coming back with gusto to steal way more money this time."....Sen. Tommy Tuberville: "Many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community. Lord help us. It is in the best interest of our country to bring back mental institutions."....former Rep. Matt Gaetz: "The Democrats want to trans your kids."....Trump on Iran: "My question is if and when I blow the entire nation up."....Jeffrey Sachs: "A president stood at the UN and claimed the right to annihilate a civilization. Congress said nothing. That is the constitutional order collapsing in public."....Trump on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico: "They're all sick, treasonous, and demented."....Trump: "Virtually every story about me, or anything having to do with me, is negative, wrong, and, in many cases, DANGEROUS for our Country!...FAKE NEWS IS A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY!"....MS NOW's Peter Alexander: "The president says fake news is reporting that is untrue. In fact, it's reporting that he finds unflattering."....Rep. Jamie Raskin: "After illegally bulldozing half of the White House, Trump bans media that won't lie for him from the other half."....Trump, calling it what it is: "The ban on the free press, right?"....CNN's Erin Burnett on the new Trump Channel: "It's a weak form of state TV -- kind of reminiscent of what you would find in North Korea."....JD Vance on Dems and midterms: "Don't give power to the crazy people who started these problems in the first place."....Sen. Tammy Duckworth: "I'm sick of fixing shit Republicans break."....Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: "At this point, the only thing he doesn't want his name on is Don Jr."....Maria Shriver: "It seems this man will not rest until his name is permanently connected to the name of a great president."....Barbra Streisand on Kennedy Center: "A bitter struggle over one man's name and unchecked ego. Oddly, when Trump's name was still on the building, there was no discussion of closing it!"....Andy Borowitz made-up headline: "Trump Enraged After Iran Renames Strait of Hormuz After JFK."....

  • September 3, 2026

    ...former diplomat Alan Eyre on Trump Iran negotiations: "[Like a] thrashing mastodon, slowly sinking into a tar pit."....Ty Cobb on redecorated White House: "Turning into some combination of a whorehouse and Las Vegas."....Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Trump: "You think an insult from him hurts me? Bring it on, buddy. You're a loser."....Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy: "I'm going to be really honest: we live in a Pornhub world."....Trump on Rep. Thomas Massie: "A real JERK."....Trump on MTG: "A highly neurotic young woman.".....WH on CNN reporter Kristen Holmes: "A disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession."....Trump on Gov. Tim Walz: "What the hell happened to Minnesota? The governor is totally corrupt. Corrupt and incompetent."....Laura Loomer on FL senate candidate Angie Nixon: "Ghetto bitch."....Sen. Jon Ossoff: "The president, surrounded by enablers in the West Wing, is playing golf, is trading stock, and is decorating his ballroom. It's a disgrace."....WH spokesperson Davis Ingle on Ossoff: "A cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama."....radio host Hugh Hewitt on Ossoff: "A ridiculous caricature of a senator...A mean-spirited jerk who traffics in slander."....Ossoff on Trump: "He doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie [Harp] on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar."....WH Communications Director Stephen Cheung on Ossoff, in response: "Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics."....Marc Cooper on Natalie Harp: "Worships Trump as some sort of cargo cult God."....Fox News host Joey Jones on complaints from Navy personnel about conditions aboard USS Abraham Lincoln: "How weak are you, on TV, complaining about tuna and noodles?...If this is a representation of who our military is now...we're just Rome sitting here waiting to burn."....WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: "Allowing complete lawlessness and chaos across our country -- we had four years of that under Joe Biden."....WH deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller: "[Communism] is the biggest, greatest, most existential threat this country will ever face...President Trump is the only thing right now standing between the American people and that abyss."....House Speaker Mike Johnson: "This is not your granddaddy's Democrat Party. These are communists. It's communism, socialism; those are deviations of Marxism."....Rep. Nancy Mace: "Every single Muslim holding office in America is a Trojan horse."....JD Vance on Michigan's Democratic senate nominee: "There is something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today."....El-Sayed on Vance: "A sock puppet."....Trump on El-Sayed: "He's full of shit."....Susan Faludi on SecDef Pete Hegseth: "The face that launched a thousand missiles."....Timothy Snyder on ICE: "A sadistic war against ourselves."....Trump on Iran: "All technology is gone...The only thing they have is Fake News."....Mary L. Trump on her uncle: "A president insisting that reality itself is lying."....Jonah Goldberg on Trump: "He's not the rebel anymore -- he's the empire."....Trump on MSNOW: "What a terrible show. They have the worst people on that show."....Lawrence O'Donnell on Trump: "The most lost man ever to live in the White House."....NYer's Susan Glasser on Trump: "He talks like a crazy eight-year-old man."....UFC star Sean Strickland: "So when you're at a Trump rally, you're like, 'Oh, I could definitely see how Hitler happened.'...Like, if Trump said, 'Go grab your gun and go do everything' they would f*cking do it."....

  • August 6, 2026

    Rep. Jim McGovern, speaking on House floor: "Is Joe McCarthy back from the dead? Because it sounds like that's who wrote all the garbage coming from Republicans, about communism."....Trump on electric vehicle owners: "They have a disease...They get screwed up...These people are crazy."....Trump on imaginary Reflecting Pool vandals: "These people are sick."....Trump on Minnesotans: "They're grossly incompetent."....Trump on Sen. Adam Schiff: "Watermelon Head...How does that big, fat, ugly head stand on a little pencil neck?"....Trump on US Attorney Jeanine Pirro: "She choked...She folded like an umbrella."....Trump: "The blue cities have something in common: crime, high crime, vicious, violent crime...It's always dirty. The sidewalks are dirty. The people are, I hate to say this, not clean."....Trump on Iran: "They've already apologized, but we've got to spank them a little bit."....Elon Musk on The Economist e-i-c Zanny Minton Beddoes: "She is a traitor to the West, plain and simple."....Trump, at WHC Dinner: "I want to personally congratulate CNN's Kaitlyn Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. She shouldn't get the award, it was fake."....Trump on Gov. Gavin Newsom: "Everything about him is dumb."....Newsom on Trump: "I just watched the rambling of a mad king and what else can I say -- the only thing missing was tin foil."....Tina Brown on Trump: "We have a president who loves cheats. They are his tribe, his confreres, his soulmates."....former Rep. Joe Walsh on Trump: "A malignant narcissist, a sociopath, and the biggest crybaby in the history of the world, all wrapped up in one."....Umberto Eco on the Internet: "Has promoted the village idiot to the level of bearer of truth."....