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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.
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December 2, 2021
....NY Post's Kyle Smith on VP Kamala Harris: "Why does she keep wearing those rejected-by-Kohl's pantsuits?"....Trump on Bob Woodward: "Longtime con man...Lightweight lapdog."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson: "Liz Cheney should be ashamed, but she's become far too degraded for shame."....Rep. Ronny Jackson on Omicron variant: "Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "Nancy Mace is the trash in the GOP Conference."....Denver Post editorial board on Rep. Lauren Boebert: "Clearly incapable of remorse or reflection."....Michael Cohen on Trump's Big Lie: "This should become a documentary, and it should be called 'The Greatest Grift in U.S. History.'"....Mike Flynn on QAnon: "I find it total nonsense...And I think it's a disinformation campaign created by the left."....white supremacist commentator Hal Turner on QAnon followers who went to Dallas expecting reappearance of JFK Jr.: "Too cowardly to stand up, pick up guns, and go kill the people [who stole the 2020 election]."....Kyle Rittenhouse on lawyer Lin Wood: "He's insane...He thinks he's God and he just says all these weird things."....NY Post's Kyle Smith on VP Harris: "All politicians blather, but Harrisblather is like an air salad with vapor croutons and nullity dressing...It's pretty clear everyone in the White House hates her."....Donald Trump Jr. on Rittenhouse outcome: "Patiently waiting for Lebron James' inevitable dumb as s*** take on today's verdict."....Rittenhouse attorney Mark Richard on Reps. Gosar, Hawthorn, and Gaetz: "They're raising money on it...They want to trade on his celebrity, and I think it's disgusting."....Sean Hannity chyron: "DESPERATE DEMS RELY ON DECEPTION AND DISTORTION TO TRY AND SELL DESTRUCTIVE AGENDA."....House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Biden administration: "The most radical, the most extreme, and the most incompetent 10 months in American history."....Rep. Brendan Boyle on epic McCarthy floor speech: "The longest month of my life."....Rep. Susan Wild: "So far it's taken GOP Leader almost three hours to tell America why GOP is opposed to biggest Rx price reduction in history. I get it. That's hard to explain."....Rep. Jamie Raskin: "It is a feat of epic proportions to speak for four hours straight and not produce a single memorable phrase, original insight, or even a joke."....Rep. Adam Schiff: "If you took the worst orator in the world, gave him the worst speech in the world, and made him read it for the longest time in the world, that would be a lot like listening to Kevin McCarthy tonight. Except, probably better."....Rep. Nydia Velazquez: "Somebody call the manager, there's a Karen on the other side of the aisle. I mean Kevin."....James Carville on Reps. Boebert, Greene, and Gosar: "These are not quality people....Let them swim in their own slop."...Sen. Ted Cruz on Dr. Fauci: "Has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans."....Kayleigh McEnany on Biden: "No one has politicized this virus more."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "They're ruining our country, these vaccine Nazis."....Fox host Lara Logan, on likening Dr. Fauci to Nazi war criminal Josef "Angel of Death" Mengele: "People all across the world are saying this."....ADL spokesman Jake Hyman on Logan and Fox: "Seem to be immune to shame and allergic to remorse."....HuffPost's Christopher Mathias on "Patriot Purge" series: "The most nakedly fascist piece of propaganda Carlson has ever produced."....Jim Acosta on Carlson: "Now that 2021 is coming to an ened, we decided to recognize you as our first ever bullshit factory employee of the year."....Howard Stern on Aaron Rodgers: "He's a scumbag because he lied...He put people in danger...He's a f***head and the NFL should be ashamed of themselves."....NY Post's Kyle Smith on VP Harris: "Maybe Kamala isn't an alien; maybe she's just a machine. Has anyone tried downloading and installing Political Hack 10.4?...Try unplugging her and plugging her back in."....Laura Ingraham on Harris: "Knows nothing except how to play the race card to get ahead."....
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November 18, 2021
....Ted Cruz on Liz Cheney: "Hates Donald Trump so much that it has just overridden everything in her system."....Cheney: "Trump broke Ted Cruz."....MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Cruz: "Sold his soul to a failed gameshow host."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Republicans who voted for Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: "Traitors."....Laura Ingraham: "Total frauds."....phone message for Rep. Fred Upton in response to his vote for Infrastructure Act: "I hope you die. I hope everyone in your f***ing family dies...I hope everyone on your f***ing staff dies."....Rep. Lauren Boebert on Rep. Ilhan Omar: "The Jihad Squad member from Minnesota."....Rep. Madison Cawthorn on people in Washington: "Trying to destroy Western Civilization."....Steve Bannon on VA Dems: "They can't win elections they don't steal."....Judge Jeanine Pirro: "Leave it to the Left to lie, divide, and turn us against each other."....Trump on Alyssa Farah, his former WH director of strategic communications: "A clown...a nobody...an inglorious lightweight."....Ann Coulter on Trump: "I had no idea how abjectly stupid the man is. I didn't think he was a genius, but I didn't think he was that stupid...He's just a very, very, very stupid man."....Rep. Lauren Boebert on Pete Buttigieg: "[Took] maternity, paternity, whatever the heck you want to call it [so he could] figure out how to chestfeed."....Elon Musk to Sen. Bernie Sanders: "I keep forgetting that you are alive."....Greta Thurnberg on COP26: "A global north greenwash festival."....Laurence Tribe: "By a vote of 1-0, I will no longer recognize the GOP as either grand or old or a party. It is a cult, and its loyalty isn't to an idea but to a cabal."....Chris Evans on CRT critics: "The people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school are now upset their grandchildren might learn about them throwing rocks at Ruby Ridges for trying to go to school."....Trump on Biden: "It's a failed administration. It's a disaster."....Ted Cruz on Biden administration: "Utterly lawless."....Rep. Adam Schiff: "There is no lie too big or conspiracy too dangerous for Tucker Carlson to propagate."....Carlson on 1/6 investigation: "A purge aimed at legacy Americans...Soldiers and paramilitary law enforcement guided by the world's most powerful intelligence agencies [are] hunting down American citizens."....CNN's Jim Acosta on Carlson's "Patriot Purge" series about 1/6: "Proud Boy porn."....Daily Beast's Wajahat Ali: "We kept telling you they were going to become a radicalized, weaponized, death cult. Here it is."....DC Metro Police Officer Michael Fanone on 1/6: "If you describe that day as anything other than brutal and violent and a disgrace to this country, you're lying to yourself."....Stephen Colbert on subpoenaed Trump associates: "A collection of powerful dumdums who helped orchestrate the last-ditch efforts to steal the election, a high-stakes low-IQ heist on democracy."....pastor Rick Wiles on COVID vaccine: "It's an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite and grows inside your body."....Tucker Carlson to Sen. Lindsey Graham: "How long before you're ordering drone attacks on people whose politics you don't like?"....
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October 30, 2021
Orlando Sentinel on FL Gov. Ron DeSantis: "What a fraud. What a phony."....Trump national security advisor Mike Flynn: "Fauci-ism is a component of the health side of fascism and Nazism...Dr. Fauci would be right there in the same room with people like Dr. Mengele..."....Sen. Tom Cotton: "Tony Fauci should resign in disgrace."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Rep. Liz Cheney: "Karen."....Trevor Noah on Greene: "Your crazy aunt's even crazier friend."....Trump on Meghan McCain: "Has always been a bully, and basically a lowlife."....former Saudi intelligence officer Saad Aljabri on Crown Prince MBS: "A psychopath with no empathy, [who] doesn't feel emotion..."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Rep. Eric Swalwell: "Legitimately stupid...He can barely remember to breathe."....Trump WH physician Ronny Jackson on Biden: "Weak, sleepy, confused behavior."....Kellyanne Conway on Biden presidency: "A man-made disaster."....Donald Trump Jr. on the USA: "We're starting to see the empty shelves that I experienced in communist Czechoslovakia in the '80s in America right now."....NY Daily News on Donald Trump Jr.: "SPAWN OF HATIN'."....Dame Joan Collins on William Shatner's space flight: "What a fool. Who wants to do that?"....
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October 22, 2021
....Sen. Josh Hawley: "For those of us who missed the McCarthy era, I guess this president is intent on bringing it to us."....Glenn Greenwald on Dems: "The worst kind of fanatics: the ones who really believe their own lies."....Trump on immigrants from Haiti: "Probably have AIDS."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Rep. Cheney: "You're done. You're a joke, Liz."....Fox News' Sean Hannity on Biden: "Not mentally, cognitively strong enough; not fit to serve."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson: "Is it still a good thing to get vaccinated? Did Colin Powell die BECAUSE of the vaccine?...We're just asking the questions the government won't allow us to ask."....conservative columnist Max Boot: "I can't think of any company that has done more damage to American democracy over the past quarter-century than Fox 'News.'"....MSNBC's Brian Williams on OAN: "For people who find Fox News too leftist...You can also pick up their signal if you happen to angle your tinfoil hat just right."....Howard Stern on Kyrie Irving giving up millions to not get vaccinated: "He's gotta be the top idiot in the country right now."....Fox anchor Will Cain on doctors who recommend vaccines: "Captured by groupthink."....Trump on GOP: "It was a dying party, I'll be honest. Now we have a very lively party."....Heather Digby Parton on GOP: "The party is actually eating itself alive."....poet Saeed Jones on Dave Chapelle's 'The Closer': "I felt like I'd just been stabbed by someone I once admired and now he was demanding that I stop bleeding."....Danny "D.J." Rodriguez, on his role in storming the Capitol on 1/6: "I'm an ass****. I'm a piece of sh**."....Joy Behar: "Pete Buttigieg served six years in the Navy Reserve and deployed -- was deployed to Afghanistan. Tucker Carlson was booted off 'Dancing with the Stars' after he couldn't even do the Cha Cha."....
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September 29, 2021
Fox News' Jesse Watters on Biden: "Instead of uniting the country against this pandemic...he's trying to divide the country against itself."....AZ Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on her state's recount: "A colossal waste of time. And anyone who is considering replicating it in their state...should not be considered a serious leader."....VA state senator Amanda Chase: "Because the Democrats like to cheat, you have to cast your vote before they do."....Trump on Gen. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "Dumbass."....Rep. Liz Cheney on Trump: "I like Republican presidents who win re-election."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson on vaccine mandates: "If they can force you to take a vaccine that you don't need, what can't they do? Why don't they make you take psychiatric drugs if you're persistently disobedient?"....former Gov. John Dean: "Fox News is killing people."....John Nolte on Biden, Pelosi, and Fauci: "Are deliberately looking to manipulate Trump supporters into not getting vaccinated."....Lara Trump: "In case you haven't noticed, America -- Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democrats do not care about you.".... AG William Barr to Trump, April 2020: "The main problem is you think you're a f***ing genius, politically. There are a lot of people out there, independents and Republicans in the suburbs of the critical states that think you're an asshole."....Trump: "Our country is rapidly becoming a cesspool of humanity."....