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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.

  • June 23, 2021

    ....Fox News' Tucker Carlson on 1/6: "It turns out that this 'white supremacist' insurrection was...organized at least in part by government agents."....CNN'S Jim Acosta: "I've decided to award Tucker with the distinction of Bullshit Factory Employee of the Month. Congrats, Tucker, you did it. Nobody bullshits like you when it comes to the insurrection."....Daily Kos headline: "Trump Admin Lawyers Having Trouble Finding Jobs Post-Jan.6: Violins Shrink to Quantum Level."....Sen. Ted Cruz: "Critical race theory is bigoted, it is a lie, and it is every bit as racist as the Klansman in white sheets."....Trump on CRT: "A Marxist doctine holding that America is a wicked and racist nation."....Fox guest Charles Murray: "The cognitive demands of [some] occupations mean that a whole lot more of white people qualify than black people, and even a higher proportion of Asian people qualify than white people."....Glenn Beck: "Yes, Obama. Critical race theory IS racist. And so are you."....Confederacy VP Alexander Stephens: "[The Confederacy was founded] upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition."....The Nation's Elie Mystal: "Joe Manchin is the guy at the whites-only diner who thinks the Negroes staging the sit-in are disturbing the peace."....SC Justice Alito on narrowness of Fulton case ruling: "This decision might as well be written on the dissolving paper sold in magic shops."....Joe Rogan on Trump: "F***ing dangerous."....Donald Trump Jr.: "Does anyone think that the Biden-Putin meeting will be anything but a bloodbath for American interests?"....Sean Hannity: "I think Putin is going to eat Biden's lunch."....Laura Ingraham on Biden: "Speaks softly and carries a big foam pool noodle."....Fox News on Biden's first foreign trip: "A colossal failure."....Newt Gingrich: "There's something about being a liberal Democrat that just loves power."....Trump on NY publishers: "Some of the biggest sleazebags on earth run these companies. No morals, no nothing, just the bottom line."....Chrissy Teigen on herself: "There is simply no excuse for my past horrible tweets...I was a troll, full stop."....white nationalist Nick Fuentes on the age of consent: "I think what it's really about is artificially increasing the sexual marketplace value of older women."....Piers Morgan on Meghan Markle: "Princess Pinocchio."....

  • June 14, 2021

    ....Rep. Lauren Boebert on the media: "Needs to quit acting like cicadas are the worst creatures in DC. I can list several that are worse, starting with the Speaker of the House."....Donald Trump Jr. on Biden: "The world sees him as feeble."....Sean Hannity: "The Squad runs Joe Biden."....Rick Perry on VP Harris: "She's finished."....US Capitol Police officer James Blassingame on 1/6 rioters: "[Looked like] a horde of zombies, just people as far as you could see just salivating..."....Fox News contributor Miranda Devine: "That's the way [Joe Biden] operates with his entire family; white privelege, Biden privilege. And he has projected his whole racism onto America. He has sullied us all with his own sins."....CA Gov. Gavin Newsom on US District Judge Roger Benitez: "A wholly-owned subsidiary of the gun lobby and the NRA."....Sen. Rand Paul on Dr. Fauci: "Continuously and deliberately misleading the public at every turn."....Sean Hannity: "Flip-flop Fauci."....Judge Judy on CBS: "We had a nice marriage. It's going to be a Bill and Melinda Gates divorce."....MSNBC's Joy-Ann Reid: "Donald Trump Jr. selling birthday greetings for $500 a pop is one of the saddest and most hilarious unexpected outcomes of our prior four years of hell."....former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock on Trump: "The patron saint of sore losers."....former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on Trump: "A runaway criminal president."....Frank Bruni on Trump: "A glutton yanked away from the buffet...No good comes from an ego as ravenous as his. He will make a meal of the Republican Party -- and of American democracy itself -- if he can."....Trump: "Our country is being destroyed before our very eyes."....Kid Rock: "If Kid Rock using the word 'faggot' offends you, good chance you are one."....

  • June 3, 2021

    ....NY Post on Sen. Mitch McConnell blocking Jan. 6 probe: "Spineless McWorm."....Michael Steele on McConnell and GOP: "Pathetic cowards."....CNN's Don Lemon: "They're trying to throw the truth of what happened into a big old memory hole so they never have to think about it again."....David Corn: "It's kind of amazing that you can watch in real-time the Republican Party betraying the nation."....Fox News' Sean Hannity: "The left's obsession with being 'woke' is turning America into a nation of weak wimps."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on AOC: "O'Crazyo-Cortez."....WaPo on Trump's website: "Has attracted fewer estimated visitors than the pet-adoption service Petfinder and the recipe site Delish."....Roger Stone on Zachary Petrizzo: "Is this not the most punchable face you have ever seen? What a little a**hole."....Eric Trump: "The Washington Post is a joke."....Trump on Madoff family, 2011: "For these people who sit there and claim they had no idea what was happening with their father, who was right next to them in offices and everything else -- don't believe it, folks! It's a scam."....Michael Cohen on Trump: "Reality doesn't exist in Donald Trump's world."....Joy Reid on Tucker Carlson: "A male Karen."....Piers Morgan on Naomi Osaka: "World sport's most petulant little madamn...A petulant brat who can't handle criticism."....Fox Sports commentator Skip Bayless on LeBron James: "The Drama King."....

  • May 20, 2021

    ....Sen. Ted Cruz on the U.S. military: "Woke, emasculated..."....NY Daily News on Sen. McConnell: "Trump's Li'l Mitch."....Rep. Tim Ryan on GOP: "We need two political parties in the country that are both living in reality. And you ain't one of them!"....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Rep. AOC through mail slot in door, in recently-posted 2019 video: "If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper, and come out and be able to talk to the American citizens."....Meghan McCain on Greene: "You're behaving like an animal...This is just abusive and abhorrent behavior from anyone, let alone a sitting member of Congress."....Rep. Liz Cheney on GOP: "We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction, and potentially the destruction of our country."....Rep. Lauren Boebert on Cheney: "Seems to be auditioning for a job with the Lincoln Project."....Fox News' Sean Hannity on Cheney: "You were removed from leadership because you put your selfish agenda ahead of the party's agenda."....Rep. Madison Cawthorn: "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney."....Rep. Adam Kinzinger on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: "Gave his proxy card to Donald Trump."....MSNBC's Joy Reid on McCarthy: "Might be the weakest man I've ever seen in politics."....The Lincoln Project on Rep. Elise Stefanik: "The perfect standard-bearer for a party that bears no standards."....Michael Steele: "Donald Trump brought the gold toilet into the RNC and everyone thinks it's a pool, and they're just diving in."....Trump on Liz Cheney: "A warmongering fool."....Trump on Mitch McConnell: "Weak and pathetic."....Trump on 2020 election: "Will go down as THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY."....Proud Boys sergeant-at-arms Ethan Nordean, in custody since February for his actions on Jan. 6: "Alright I'm gonna say it. F*** TRUMP. F*** him more than Biden. I've followed this guy for four years and given everything and lost it all...So glad he was able to pardon a bunch of degenerates as his last move and sh** on us on the way out."....Joanna Weiss on Twitter: "It's essentially a ping-pong match held over a viper pit."....

  • May 10, 2021

    ....GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger on his party: "Right now it's basically the Titanic...We have a band on the deck telling everyone it's fine. Donald Trump's running around trying to find women's clothing and get on the first lifeboat."....MD Gov. Larry Hogan on his party: "It just bothers me that you have to swear fealty to the dear leader or you get kicked out...It's sort of a circular firing squad."....Maureen Dowd on Liz Cheney and the GOP: "Suddenly seems like a Valkyrie amid halflings."....Sean Hannity: "On the left, you're allowed to lie and make crazy, ridiculous, totally untrue statements, and you can get a free pass, and you can even say racist things or racial things, sexist things, xenophobic, homophobic, and you'll even get a pass."....Trump: "Free speech has been taken away from the President of the United States."....Steve Silberman: "How dare Big Tech try to silence the man whose lies dominated every news cycle for five years, whose every tantrum was a headline, whose words were poison in the American bloodstream, whose face loomed over our dreams, who ordered a coup with his iPhone."....Laura Ingraham on teaching kids "they" and "them" pronouns: "The goal is to break the bond with the nuclear family."....MSNBC's Jason Johnson on Sen. Lindsey Graham: "Has about as much political integrity and stability as a weather vane."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson: "Joy-Ann Reid, the race lady over at MSNBC, took a quick break from haranguing whitey yesterday."....Reid on Carlson: "I'm not the one who spools over my neighborhood 'changing' like I'm some segregationist housewife from the 1950s! That would be you, Tuckums."....