Archive
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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July 8, 2022
....former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis: "Fittingly, Biden awarded his presidential medals to fellow losers, Biles and Rapinoe."....Trump on 1/6 hearings: "The highly partisan Unselect Committee of political Thugs."....Rudy Giuliani: "The January 6 Witch Hunt Cabal."....Rep. Matt Gaetz: "An unconstitutional political sideshow."....Sen. Ted Cruz: "This is a joke. Nothing but a political ad for Democrats."....Steve Bannon: "J6 is about shutting down the Army of the Awakening. It's shutting down Trump but it's also coming after you."....radio host Mark Levin on media and Dems: "Through the Stalinist January 6 committee, are trying to portray Trump as an emotionally unbalanced, foul-mouthed man."....podcast host Joe Rogan on Trump: "An existential threat to democracy itself...I don't want to help him."....Trump on Rogan: "Lyin' Joe would rather have second rate President like Gutless Ron DeSantis on his LOW RATED show."....Trump: "How did the great state of Arkansas ever have a total RINO Stiff like Asa Hutchinson as their Governor. Any relationship to Lyin' Cassidy Hutchinson, another real loser?"....Trump on George Will: "His mind is decaying with hatred and envy before our very eyes."....James Woods on Dems: "A mob that lied, cheated, burned, and looted to get their way."....Larry Kudlow on Biden: "Have you ever seen a president who refuses to accept blame and...commits so many falsehoods? On any given day he's out there saying stuff that just ain't true."....Arianna Huffington: "So, to sum up the Supreme Court's week: life begins at conception and ends in a mass shooting."....Jon Stewart on Supreme Court: "The Fox News of justice...States can't regulate guns, but they can regulate the uterus."....Twitter meme re GOP: "You people went from "Don't tell us to wear masks!" to "Have that baby!" in like two months. You realize how crazy that makes you?"....Brandon Burns: "New rule: You can't tell me when life begins when you don't even know when an election is over."....Stephen King: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, you must be Susan Collins."....Jonah Goldberg on Trump: "He thought he could simply reenact Mussolini's March on Rome and stay president."....Capitol Police officer Daniel Hodges: "The President of the United States set us up."....Michael Beschloss: "Never seen a President in history who seemed so relaxed about the possible imminent murder of his Vice President."....Andrew Sullivan on Trump: "No guiltier man in the entire history of America."....Laurence Tribe: "Alito's boast that his shredding of fundamental personal rights in Dobbs v Jackson needn't worry anyone except women capable of serving as breeders is, shall we say, troubling...Since when was it a defense to say "I only hurt women.""....Sen. Ted Cruz: "The approach of the Democrats is to take away firearms from law-abiding citizens."....Jeff Tiedrich: "BREAKING: Well-Regulated Militia Opens Fire On Fourth Of July Parade in Highland Park, Illinois."....HRC: "It shouldn't be harder to obtain an abortion than an AR-15."....sign at rally: "He who hath not a uterus should shut the f***et up.-- Fallopians 13:13"....Lindy Li: "Texas GOP declares homosexuality "an abnormal lifestyle choice." You know what's abnormal? Worshipping at the altar of a twice-impeached criminal psychopath. Kids running around w/ AR-15s decapitating kids. Policing our vaginas. Terrorizing our Capitol. The GOP is f'ing abnormal."....George Takei on Texas GOP platform: "Neo-fascist dehumanization."....David Cross: "We're a little over five months away from burning witches."....J.D. Vance: "If your worldview tells you that it's bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle at the New York Times or Goldman Sachs, you've been had."....Tucker Carlson on Biden: "The single most destructive force in the history of the United States."....Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan: "Trump was the least popular president in American history until Joe Biden."....Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, performing in London: "F*** America. I'm f***ing renouncing my citizenship...There's just too much f***ing stupid in the world to go back to that miserable f***ing excuse for a country."....Yellowstone park ranger on difficulty of developing a garbage bin bears can't break into: "There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."....
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June 20, 2022
....Sen. Ted Cruz on 1/6 hearings: "Boring. It's not news. It's like an MSNBC panel."....Fox News host Tucker Carlson: "The whole thing is insulting. In fact it's deranged...They are lying."....Rudy Giuliani on Trump staff members Jason Miller and Bill Stepien: "Are they being paid to lie?"....Rep. Andy Biggs: "The January 6 committee is nothing more than a partisan sham perpetrated by Democrats."....Alan Dershsowitz: "I have never seen a congressional hearing like this since McCarthyism."....Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington on Bill Barr testimony: "Cowardly RINO and shill for the Marxist Democrats."....Steve Bannon: "Thirteen or fourteen generations of this country have sacrificed to hand us the Republic we have, and we're not going to be blown off by someone like Bill Barr. Bill Barr, we're coming for you, bro."....Jennifer Senior on Bannon: "An American Rasputin...Attempting to insert a lit bomb into the mouth of American democracy."....Mary Trump on her uncle: "We need to be very blunt on what happened. He handed down a death sentence to Mike Pence."....MSNBC's Ari Melber on Trump lawyer John Eastman: "'I've decided I should be on the pardon list' is one of the most incriminating, damning, guilty and also dumb things a lawyer could ever put in writing. Literally."....Andrew Sullivan on Trump's 12-page letter in response to 1/6 hearings: "The work of someone with no grip on reality, absurd lie after lie after lie, barely literate, the kind of thing you'd think was written by a lunatic if you received it in the mail."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on GOP: "If we nominate Trump we will be destroyed...and we will deserve it."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "If you vote for gun control, you are not on the side of America."....Rep. Louie Gohmert on Dems: "If you're a Republican you can't even lie to Congress, or lie to an FBI agent, or they're coming after you, they're going to bury you, they're going to put you in DC jail."....NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson: "We are called to be led by men. God sent women out...When it was time to face down Goliath, [he] sent David. Not Davida."....
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June 6, 2022
Trump on the US: "Our elections are rigged."....Vice's Cameron Joseph on Trump: "A lot of Republicans, even really hardcore conservative MAGA-y type folks, are sick of his bitching."....National Review's Rich Lowry: "Trump's signature 2016 boast of I Alone Can Fix It has effectively become I Alone Can Fixate On It."....Laurence Tribe: "Trump is now emailing that Kemp stole the GOP primary election in Georgia from Perdue, even though Kemp won by a staggering margin of 3 to 1. It's now clear what Trump means by a stolen election. He means any election whose result he doesn't like."....Gregg Barak, co-founder of Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime: "I study deception. I study mistrust. I study the con. Donald Trump is the archetype of all those things. He's a grifter, he's a racketeer."....Chauncey Devega on Trump: "Can fairly be described as a political crime boss."....SD Gov. Kristi Noem on Biden: "When is this country going to wake up and realize what a terrible president he is?"....Sen. Chris Murphy on mass shootings: "This only happens in this country...Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they may be shot that day."....Rep. Jim Jordan: "Today's left: Bend the knee. Wear your mask. Give us your guns."....Rep. Eric Swalwell to Jordan: "We're trying to make sure no more kids are put in the ground with a Superman coffin. Why aren't you trying to dramatically change the number of dead kids going into the ground?"....Emma Gray: "I cannot believe that this country has decided that fetuses are more important than women, and guns are more important than kids. I feel sick."....Maureen Dowd on GOP: "May as well change their party symbol from an elephant to an AR-15."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "If your representative thinks AR stands for Assault Rifle, FIRE THEM!"....Laura Miller on Kellyanne Conway's memoir: "500 pages packed with more score-settling than a Quentin Tarantino movie."....Rayla Campbell, GOP nominee for MA Secretary of State, on her state's teachers: "I don't think it's nice when they're telling your five-year-old that he can go and suck another five-year-old's dick. Do you? This is what they are doing."....
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May 25, 2022
....Elon Musk on Democratic Party: "Has become the party of division and hate...The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter."....Charlie Sykes on Musk: "We live in an age of s***-posting billionaires...It's good to be f-you rich in an age without guardrails or shame."....Maureen Dowd on Justice Alito's leaked Roe v. Wade draft: "The Puritans' greatest victory since they expelled Roger Williams from the Massachusetts Bay Colony."....Laurence Tribe on leaked opinion: "Whoever wrote it thinks they're really smart -- but their work turns out to be just plain dumb from start to finish."....Sen. Patrick Leahy: "Here we are today, a body of 100, 76% of which are male, making decisions about the private lives of the nearly 168 million women in this country. That's ludicrous."....CA Gov. Gavin Newsom: "Where the hell's my party? Where's the Democratic Party?"....Rep. Val Demings: "I'm sick and tired of Marco Rubio trying to tell women what to do."....MSNBC's Ari Melber: "So to Republicans, a 12-year-old is old enough to be forced to give birth, get married, or shoot an assault rifle, but is too young to say "gay" or see bad words in a book? Do I have that right?"....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "The Left thinks misgendering someone is a more heinous crime than dismembering and murdering a baby."....hate-preacher Greg Locke to his Tennessee congregation: "You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat! They are God-denying demons who butcher babies and hate this nation!...You God-denying communists, you'll find out what an insurrection is!...The Bible says we'll take it by force."....former Trump assistant Peter Navarro on Dr. Anthony Fauci: "Here's your future, Tony. Republicans are gonna take back the House. You're gonna sit your ass down in a chair, in Congress, and you're gonna confess to creating the virus...and we're gonna fit you for an orange jumpsuit."....Sen. Ted Cruz: "Today's Democrats believe in mob rule and intimidation, just like the Marxists and the Communists. They're willing to burn down our institutions to get what they want!"....Mike Pence: "This Administration has done more damage to America in a year and a half than any presidency in my lifetime."....Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Trump: "An unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service."....Trump on Esper: "Weak and totally ineffective...He would do anything I wanted, that's why I called him Yesper. He was a lightweight and figurehead and I realized it very early on."....Steve Bannon on Esper's book: "You're going to be held accountable for this, bro...When we come to power don't think you're skipping away from this."....Howard Dean on Sen. Josh Hawley and J.D. Vance: "A lot of B.S., not much loyalty to the United States of America, slick."....Ann Coulter on incoming WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: "The first person in that post who is a black lesbian. But in a bow to tradition, she IS a complete moron."....John Pavlovitz on Great Replacement theory: "I'm a white guy and I want white guys like Tucker Carlson replaced with anyone with human decency."....Ricky Gervais on Piers Morgan interviewing the Taliban: "I've lost all respect for them."....
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May 4, 2022
....Fox News' Lisa Kennedy Montgomery on Bruce Springsteen: "I think he's a commie...He's turned into a massive pinko."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "The Left has gone beyond questioning man and are now questioning the will of God. Dangerous and demonic territory."....Fox News' Sean Hannity on NBC and CNN: "Both organizations are only propaganda arms for the DNC. They peddle in lies, conspiracy theories, always to advance the socialist agenda, hate on everything conservative, and all Trump supporters."....Elon Musk on NBC: "Same org that covered up Hunter Biden laptop story, had Harvey Weinstein story early and killed it, and built Matt Lauer his rape office. Lovely people."....novelist Jacob Bacharach on Elon Musk: "All the brain damage of Ronald Reagan, but none of the charm."....Mehdi Hasan on Musk: "A petulant and not-so-bright billionaire."....Sean Hannity on Hasan: "A not-so-bright MSNBC host...I don't really know this guy."....Mary Trump on her uncle: "He knows he's a deeply unintelligent person...He's always trying to fill a need that's deeply unfillable."....Tristan Snell on Supreme Court: "Won't force you to wear a mask in a pandemic -- but it'll force you to bear a child."....Russian oligarch and war critic Oleg Y. Tinkov: "I've realized that Russia, as a country, no longer exists...Why would we have a good army [when the country is] mired in nepotism, servility, and subservience?"....former Ukraine president Viktor Yushchenko: "The Putin I dealt with no longer exists."....Trump-endorsed AZ gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake: "I will not take any orders from Joe Biden. He's illegitimate, that election was a sham, and he's trying to destroy this country...I think we need to decertify that election."....GA gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor on Biden: "We have a fradulent pedophile in the White House."....Sean Hannity on Biden: "One of the dumbest, least capable presidents we've ever had."....Trump on Biden: "Taking orders from the Easter Bunny."....John Pavlovitz: "Nothing like reading Tweets from Republican politicians, with Scriptures from a Bible they don't read about a God they don't believe in and a Jesus they have no interest in emulating."....New Abnormal co-host Andy Levy on Russian disinformation: "They can just play clips of 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' and their job is done for the most part. They're basically at the Alex Jones-level right now."....Jimmy Kimmel on Carlson: "I think he's like the media version of the Sackler family. He's knowingly producing this deadly opioid of lies that has a devastating effect on the country. But he's OK with it, because it's making him rich."....Jonathan Alter on GOP: "Has become a white grievance party that is set to renominate an authoritarian, pro-Putin demagogue who tried to stage a coup."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Dems: "They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next."....National Review's Rich Lowry on MTG: "A bomb-thrower drawn to lurid conspiracy theories."....Rep. Ronnie Jackson on House Jan. 6 committee: "Illegitimate."....WaPo's Michael Kranish on Sen. Ted Cruz: "Somebody who knows what the Constitution calls for, knows what his duties and obligations are, and was willing, frankly, to set that aside."....Trump on Prince Harry: "Poor Harry is being led around by the nose, and I think he's an embarrassment."....Trump on Ted Cruz: "Pussy."....Trump on Kevin McCarthy: "Pussy."....Trump on Mike Pence: "Pussy."....TN state Rep. Jerry Sexton on books deemed inappropriate for school libraries: "I would burn them."....Sen. Rand Paul on Dr. Anthony Fauci: "A man that is against everything that America stands for."....Ann Coulter: "Fauci is SO JEALOUS of Communist China!"....Trump on former AG Bill Barr's memoir: "Crummy book...So False."....U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton on Trump: "I think our democracy is in trouble because, unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president who doesn't, in my view, really care about democracy but only about power."....Mary Trump: "It's Democrats vs. Fascists in 2022. Vote accordingly."....Rep. Madison Cawthorn: "I think we have bred a generation of soft men and that generation has created a lot of problems in our society and our culture."....FL Gov. Ron DeSantis on San Francisco: "A dumpster fire."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor."....Tucker Carlson on McCarthy: "A puppet of the Democrats."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "Hey libs, if you're mad about the mask mandates being lifted...start your own airline. Or just keep flying around on your private planes."....Fox News' Pete Hegseth: "Freedom smells even better when you take off your dirty mask."....James Carville: "Look at Peter Navarro...You're telling me he's a normal human being?!? No. And he's not even among the worst...A large part of the Republican Party is just out-and-out weird."....Rep. Eric Swalwell: "Imagine being a party that condemns Mickey Mouse more harshly than Vladimir Putin. That's the Republican Party. Tough on a fictional mouse and soft on Russia."....Putin on the U.S.: "Ready to fight with Russia until the last Ukrainian."....DNC Chair Jaime Harrison on GOP: "A party built on fraud, fear, and fascism."....Sen. Rick Scott: "We survived the War of 1812, Civil War, World War I and World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War. [But] today, we face the greatest danger we have ever faced: The militant left-wing in our country has become the enemy within."....Ruth Ben-Ghiat on FL and Texas: "Laboratories of autocracy."....George Carlin: "Bullshit is the glue that binds us as a nation."....