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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January 30, 2022
....Trump on the U.S.: "Our country and our elections are corrupt."....CNN's Brianna Keilar on disinformation and Fox News: "The mothership."....ex-Fox host Gretchen Carlson on changes at the network: "There's a big difference between having a conservative opinion and having one that supports conspiracy theories."....Laura Ingraham on Biden two-hour press conference: "It was a nightmare...About the worst that I can remember from a president, frankly."....former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany: "The most delusional press conference I have ever seen."....Sean Hannity: "I don't say this with any joy -- I felt embarrassed."....Bill O'Reilly: "Joe Biden cannot run the country."....Molly Jong-Fast: "Besides racism, the only tenet of Trumpism is baiting Democrats."....conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Jan. 6 committee investigation: "The whole thing is tainted. It's like a big bowl of soup. You put one rat turd in it, it's no good. Well, this has got like hundreds of rat turds. And I ain't eating the soup."....former ambassador Nikki Haley: "If Joe Biden loved our country, he would step down and take Kamala Harris with him."....Fox's Jesse Watters on VP Harris: "I'm not saying this, but many people are saying this sounds like a typical female problem...The first female vice president comes in there, and every single article is about her feelings."....Geraldo Rivera on U.S. Senate: "Lately, it's been a Bazaar for Bozos. The low-brow rudeness displayed by senators like Paul and Marshall has remade the Upper Chamber into a Jerry Springer show."....Trump ally Roger Stone on former Trump spokesperson Jason Miller: "A scumbag...A duplicitious a**hole...in the 40 years I have been in American politics, I have never met a bigger more despicable piece of s***.".....Ann Telnaes on Justice Gorsuch: "Maskless manspreader."....Ohio GOP senatorial candidate Josh Mandel: "I do not believe in separation of church and state...I'm pro-God, pro-gun, pro-Trump, and I will fight in Washington with the Constitution in one hand and the Bible in the other."....opponent Morgan Harper on Mandel: "...Doesn't belong anywhere near the U.S. Senate."....Richard Signorelli on forthcoming Kellyanne Conway memoir: "Hard pass; I'm not reading any fiction these days until our democracy is no longer threatened by the sociopath you enabled for four nightmarish years."....Packers QB Aaron Rogers on the CDC: "How do you even trust them?....And you still have this fake White House set saying that this is 'the pandemic of the unvaccinated.'"....Sean Hannity on Biden: "A fool...Mosquitos are held in higher esteem."....
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January 18, 2022
....Ann Coulter: "My housekeeper is better positioned in the party than Trump is. Trump is done."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "We have a socialist government running our nation."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson on SC Justice Kavanaugh: "A cringing little liberal."....Trump on Sen. Mike Rounds: "I will never endorse this jerk again."....Wisconsin Capital Times editorial board on Sen. Ron Johnson: "A delusional huckster who recommends fighting COVID-19 with Listerine."....WaPo Editorial Board on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: "Has...thrown in his lot with the enemies of democracy."....Carl Bernstein on GOP: "A party of sedition."....Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Dems: "Silencing voters who inconvenience Democrats."....DNC chair Jaime Harrison on McConnell: "Save the damn crocodile tears...We all know you are a hypocrite."....Sen. Roger Marshall to Dr. Anthony Fauci: "Every day you appear on TV you do more damage than good."....Sen. Rand Paul on Fauci: "Using government resources to smear and to destroy the reputations of other scientists..."....Fauci on Paul: "You are milking a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain."....Trump on Sen. John Thune: "Mitch's boy."....James Carville on Dems: "Quit being a whiny party."....Daily Beast headline: "Convicted Fraudster Paul Manafort Lands Deal for Whiny Book."....Eric Trump on NY Attorney General suing Trump Organization: "This is what you'd expect from Russia."....Mary Trump on her uncle: "Donald is the weakest person I've ever met in my life. And yet, he has been able to find people even weaker than he is whom he is able to bend to his will."....Trump: "All the Democrats want to do is put people in jail. They are vicious, violent, and Radical Left thugs."....Christopher "Vaccine Police" Key on Walmart pharmacists administering COVID-19 vaccine: "What they are doing is crimes against humanity."....Mexican TV news anchor Leonardo Schwebel tearing into the unvaccinated live, on air: "If you're anti-vax, you're a moron!"....Trump: "The Big Lie is a lot of bullshit, that's what it is."....
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January 9, 2022
....Newt Gingrich on Biden: "A mean-spirited vicious partisan hack..."....Philip Rotner on attempt to overthrow election: "Trump fell five Rudys short."....Laura Ingraham: "This isn't the Biden administration...It's the MSNBC administration."....Dr. Mehmet Oz and wife Lisa on New York magazine writer Olivia Nuzzi: "This f***ing girl reporter."....Dana Milbank: "Marjorie Taylor Greene is a wart on the body politic. Facebook is a melanoma."....Sidney Blumenthal on GOP: "Looking more and more like a death cult."....Lincoln Project: "If it looks like a coward, walks like a coward, and lies like a coward, it's probably Ted Cruz."....Rep. Liz Cheney on GOP: "Right now we have a cult of personality...My party is not embracing truth."....Trump on House Select Committee investigating 1/6: "Total bias and dishonesty."....John Pavlovitz: "I've never been prouder to not be a Republican."....Maureen Dowd: "It's as if Trump projected his id into a national psychosis...You can just picture him sitting there in the White House, surrounded by McDonald's wrappers, thrilled at the TV scenes of MAGA hooligans attacking the police."....Alex Jones on Trump: "How pathetic he is when you think he is playing 4D chess, going to save you, and he's not."....John F. Harris on Trump: "The most garish personality ever to occupy the presidency...He always has lots to say but no longer has anything meaningful to say."....Lawrence Jones: "The school districts are crying COVID, stealing your money, and spending it on woke indoctrination programs."....Rep. Dan Crenshaw on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "Not a serious person."....Greene on Crenshaw: "Shooting with blanks."....Mark Levin on Biden: "The most lawless president in modern American history."....SD Gov. Kristi Noem on Biden: "He's attacking America and what has made this country so special."....Tomi Lahren: "I don't ever remember electing Dr. Fauci to run my country."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "Are Democrat families checking Santa's vaccination records before letting him down their chimney this year?"....Trump on Twitter: "A disgrace to democracy...A disgrace to our nation."....Jon Stewart on 2021: "I might owe 2020 an apology. Good riddance to a s*** show of a year."....
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December 20, 2021
....Rep. Ilhan Omar: "Manchin's excuse is bulls***."....Michael Cohen on Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows: "Dumbest a-hole on the Hill."....Fox host Tucker Carlson on Sen. Joni Ernst: "A bloodthirsty warmonger."....Carlson on Biden and other Putin critics: "These people are children."....Slate's William Saletan on Carlson: "America's proudest nihilist...He's not looking for men who have souls. He's looking for men who don't."....Sen. Ted Cruz to Rep. Eric Swalwell: "Hush child. The adults are working."....Sean Hannity: "Joe Biden is weak and in an obvious and significant cognitive decline."....Ann Coulter: "The way it's going for Kamala, even the lapdogs in the White House press corps are probably just days away from asking her to spell potato."....attorney Lin Wood on Carlson, Dan Bongino, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "They lied like dogs about me."....Britney Spears on 2003 interview by Diane Sawyer: "Kiss my white ass."....Rudy Giuliani on Dr. Anthony Fauci: "Everything he says is not science, it's bulls***."....Rep. Steve Cohen on Trump: "The most disgusting presidency in the history of this country."....James Carville: "I guess McConnell thinks what this country needs is more hungry children."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "By the standard of today's left, the Founding Fathers would have been considered right-wing extremists."....Rep. Nancy Mace on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "If you say something batshit crazy...you are going to raise money."....Caitlyn Jenner on Beverly Hills Hotel enforcing its dress code: "F*** your horrible service for not letting me have lunch with this tiny rip in my jeans."....conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Biden administration: "Did they use weather weapons to cause the tornadoes? That's a legitimate question to ask."....Trump: "November 3rd was the insurrection. January 6th was a protest."....Donald Trump Jr.: "I trust Joe Rogan more than I trust Anthony Fauci."....Jimmy Kimmel on Trump-O'Reilly rally: "If the place was any emptier, it would be Don Jr.'s head."....
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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."....