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.

  • November 3, 2020

    ........Trump on Sen. Kamala Harris: "A monster."....Obama on Trump rallies: "COVID-spreader tour."....Trump on absentee ballots: "Who's sending them? Who's receiving them? Who's bringing them back? It's ridiculous. The only way we can lose, in my opinion, is massive fraud."....Newt Gingrich: "President Trump knows how to put Americans back to work and Biden knows how to hide in a basement."....Obama: "Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your family safe."....Trump: "Biden's plan will destroy America. My plan will destroy the virus."....Biden: "To beat the virus, first we've got to beat Donald Trump. He's the virus."....Laura Ingraham on Biden: "Seems more like an assisted living resident than president."....Donald Trump Jr. on Biden: "Has no energy, no charisma, no backbone."....Obama on Trump: "The president wants to get credit for the economy he inherited and zero blame for the pandemic he ignored."....Trump to NC rally, on people running voting sites: "Be poll watchers when you go there. Watch all the thieving and stealing and robbing they do."....Rep. Adam Schiff: "For Trump, truth isn't truth, science is suspect, and personal interest comes before saving lives."....Trump: "I think Adam Schiff is a sick person."....Schiff on Trump's finances: "He even billed us for water he drank at his own resort."....Michael Cohen on Trump: "Repeats his lies over and over with the belief that the more he tells them the more people will believe them. We all wish he'd just shut up, but the problem is he won't."....Trump: "The USA doesn't have Freedom of the Press, we have the Supression of the Story, or just plain Fake News."....Obama on Trump: "You think he's going to stand up to dictators? He thinks Lesley Stahl's a bully."....Laurence Tribe on Trump: "As evil a traitor as this country has ever known -- including Benedict Arnold."....Rep. AOC: "Listen, if Republicans want pointers on looking your best, I'm happy to share. Tip #1: Drink water and don't be racist."....Trump on AOC: "Not a good student, not good at anything, but she's got a good line of crap."....Rick Wilson: "Are you willing to watch your child's behavior be modeled on Donald Trump versus what your dad taught you?"....former CIA director John O. Brennan on VP Mike Pence: "Has supported, enabled, excused, and ignored Trump's incompetence, lies, and narcissism over the last four years. He has neither spine nor conscience."....Trump at rally in Des Moines: "I may never have to come back here again if I don't get Iowa. I'll never be back."....Molly Jong-Fast on Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner: "Cosplaying as government officials."....challenger Jaime Harrison on Sen. Lindsey Graham: "A relic of the Old South."....Rep. Vernon Jones on Biden: "Has a history of hanging out with segregationists."....Jared Kushner on the Black community: "[President Trump] can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful."....Charles M. Blow on Trump: "Reign of terror and idiocy."....Biden on Trump: "The longer he's in charge the more reckless he gets."....Trump on Dems: "We caught them trying to take out a duly elected president of the United States. That's treason. We caught them."....presidential historian Michael Beschloss on Trump presidency: "Has shown...how far someone with a lust for power and contempt for democracy can go within our system."....Trump on Supreme Court decision re PA mail-in voting, in tweet flagged by Twitter: "Will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire system of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets."....Lady Gaga on Trump: "Believes his fame gives him the right to grab one of your daughters or sisters or mothers or wives by any part of their body."....Bruce Springsteen: "There's no art in this White House. There's no literature, no poetry, no music...There's no time when the president takes off his blue suit, red tie uniform and becomes human. Except when he puts on his white shirt and khaki pants uniform and hides from the American people to play golf."....Noam Chomsky on Trump inaction on climate change: "The worst criminal in human history."....Trump: "'COVID! COVID! COVID!' is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media...People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots."....Trump: "You know, our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right?"....MSNBC's Ari Melber on Election Day eve: "The Ramones' 'I Want to be Sedated' is running through our heads. At least my head."........

  • October 28, 2020

    ........George Will on Trump: "A practitioner of crybaby conservatism...Ever a weaking, [he] will end his presidency as he began it: whining."....Biden on Trump COVID policy: "Waving the white flag."....WH Press Secretary Mark Meadows: "The only person waving a white flag, with his white mask, is Joe Biden."....Trump on Biden: "Waving a white flag on life."....Melania Trump: "Joe Biden's policy and socialist agenda will only serve to destroy America and all that has been built in the past four years."....Sen. Ed Markey on ACB's judicial philosophy: "Originalism is racist...sexist...homophobic. Originalism is just a fancy word for discrimination."....Sen. Mike Lee on Markey: "Patently irresponsible...Has essentially said that our Constitution is racist."....AOC: "Trump is the racist visionary, but McConnell gets the job done."....Maureen Dowd: "Biden is an empath. Trump is a sociopath...His only normal is chaos."....Ann Coulter on Biden: "A slurring dementia patient."....Leana S. Wen on Trump administration: "Meeting the greatest public health crisis of our time with a shrug...History will look back on this moment in disbelief and horror."....Obama on Trump: "Isn't going to suddenly protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself."....Mary Trump on her uncle: "Anybody who's capable of putting hundreds of millions of people at risk to avoid looking bad doesn't care about you...Deep down, he's a terrified little boy."....Donald Trump Jr.: "My father gave me an opportunity to work my way up in his company. Joe Biden gave his son China."....Trump on Biden: "A pathetic candidate."....Michael Daily on Trump: "Thug-in-Chief."....Ben Rhodes on SC and Justice ACB: "Hemorrhaging legitimacy."....Bob Woodward: "Trump is melting down, to put it charitably."....Peggy Noonan on Sen. Kamala Harris: "She's going for a Happy Warrior vibe, but she's coming across as insubstantial, frivolous...When she started to dance in the rain onstage...it was embarrassing."....Claire McCaskill on Noonan: "I've never been more disappointed in a woman that I thought I admired in my life."....John Bolton on Trump: "Doesn't have a worldview."....Trump on a Biden presidency: "Wave bye-bye to your 401(k), cause it's going down the tubes."....Anthony Scaramucci on Trump: "There's a screw loose and you don't have to be a psychiatrist to see that...He's not a fully developed adult."....Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio: "Biden feels others' pain. Trump doesn't even feel his own."....Sacha Baron Cohen on Trump: "The world's greatest superspreader of coronavirus conspiracies."....Trump on Cohen: "A phony guy...A creep."....Susan B. Glasser: "What does the worst debate in American history look like? It looks like the debate that took place on Tuesday night."....Biden on Trump: "You're the worst president America has ever had."...Rep. Elise Stefanik on Biden: "Lying to the American people."....Sen. Bernie Sanders: "We have a president who is working day and night to undermine American democracy."....Biden to vets: "Vote Bonespurs out and reclaim your stolen honor!"....Lincoln Project on Sen. Lindsey Graham: "A weak man with a weak character...Spineless, do-nothing dead weight...Pathetic swamp rat."....Obama on Trump: "Wants full credit for the economy he inherited and zero blame for the pandemic he ignored."....Laurence O'Donnell on Trump: "In my experience, whenever someone says 'I am the least racist person in the room,' they are always the most racist person in the room."....William Saletan on Trump: "In the course of his presidency, he has attacked the press, the FBI, the CIA, the military, Canada, NATO, the U.S. Park Police, governors, mayors, Fox News, and his own appointees."....Donald Trump Jr. on Biden: "Joe's idea of serving the American people is to get Hunter rich then doze off in his basement while CNN campaigns for him."....Steve Schmidt on Trump: "The greatest con man this country has ever produced...He will ask people to perform sedition."....Clare McCaskill on Trump: "Like the most uncomfortable shoes you've ever had to wear."....clothing designer/tailor Fresh, on Trump's suit: "When you have more clothes than body in the clothes, you're showing the viewer you're trying to hide something."....Stephen King on Trump "What a dink."........

  • October 21, 2020

    ........Trump on the Bidens "An organized crime family."....GOP pollster Frank Luntz on Trump 2020: "It's the worst campaign I've seen. They've got their heads up their asses."....Rev. John Huffman, pastor to President Nixon, on Trump: "An immoral, amoral sociopathic liar who functions from a core of insecure malignant narcissism."....Trump on Erie, PA: "Before the plague came in I had it made. I wasn't coming to Erie. I have to be honest. There's no way I was coming. I didn't have to...We had this thing won."....Donald Trump Jr.: "FBI leadership is corrupted."....Trump, in Nevada, on Biden: "If he comes in, Carson City will become a ghost town. And the Christmas season will be canceled."....Sen. Kamala Harris on Trump: "A reckless disregard for human life."....Trump on Biden: "He wants to listen to Dr. Fauci."....Dr. Deborah Birx on Trump accepting bad evidence: "If he likes the sound of it, he believes it."....Trump on Biden: "He'll listen to the scientists. If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression, instead of, we're like a rocket ship."....George Conway on Trump: "You think everyone is as stupid as you are."....Ron Reagan Jr. on Trump family: "We've got a bunch of grifters there in the White House. They're treating this as a grift."....David Frum on NYPost Biden story: "Could not have been more obviously fake if it had been wearing dollar-store spectacles and attached plastic mustache."....Trump on Biden: "Shipped away your jobs, shut down your factories, and ravaged our cities."....Jennifer Rubin on Trump administration members: "They should think more about atoning for the betrayal of their country than trying to escape the consequences of enabling a liar, racist and wannabe authoritarian."....Sen. Ben Sasse on Trump: "He kisses dictators' butts...His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He's flirted with white supremacists...A TV-obsessed, narcissistic individual."...Trump: "The least effective of our 53 Republican Senators, and a person who truly doesn't have what it takes to be great, is Little Ben Sasse of Nebraska."....Rep. Vernon Jones, crowdsurfer at Trump rally: "This Trumptrain is about to steamroll over corrupt Joe Biden, Fake Liberal News, and the DNC."....Caroline Giuliani on Trump: "I may not be able to change my father's mind, but together, we can vote this toxic administration out of office."....Trump on Biden: "[If] this other guy gets in you're gonna have a problem like you've never seen before. Your 401(k)s, your stocks -- you wanna see 'em drop like a rock? You wanna have some fun with your family, explaining? 'Why is it down 80% Dad. We don't love you anymore, Dad.'"....former Trump exec Barbara Res: "Bigotry and bias control Donald's view of the world."....Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh on Res: "This is transparently a disgruntled former employee packaging a bunch of lies in a book to make money."....Trump on Jake Tapper: "Who likes him? Who the hell can like him?"....MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Trump town hall claims: "Complete horse hockey...Potentially deadly bunk."....Rick Wilson on Trump: "Usually submerges interviewers under a tidal wave of bulls***."....Sean Hannity on CNN: "Basically B state-run television."....Trump on Biden: "I'm running against the single worst candidate in the history of presidential politics and you know what that does -- that puts more pressure on me. Can you imagine if you lose to a guy like this? It's unbelievable."....Kellyanne Conway on Nancy Pelosi: "She's so rude. Thin Skin & Thick Skull = Bad Combo."....Sen. Chris Murphy: "Our president is now a proud, vocal segregationist."....Sen. David Perdue on colleague Kamala Harris: "Ka-MA-la or KA-ma-la or Kamala-mala-mala. I don't know, whatever."....challenger Jon Ossoff on Perdue's deliberate mispronunciation: "This is performative bigotry."....Trump on Biden: "Shot, folks. He's shot...He has no idea what he's saying."....John Podesta on Trump: "When you think about the advice he's giving to the American people...you have to ask yourself -- is he under the influence of drugs, is it just more of the same of his incapacity to feel the pain of others?"....PA State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta on Trump: "The latest scam is trying to commit fraud against our democracy."....Trump on Pete Buttigieg: "He was a bad mayor of a failed town."....former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel: "People look up to the president for answers, and he supplies them with falsehoods that put their lives at risk."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Trump declining second debate: "My first thought -- a total chicken. He knows that he just got spanked in that first debate."....former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa: "We have a biological terrorist in the White House."....Johnny Rotten on voting for Trump: "I'd be daft as a brush not to."....John Oliver on Trump: "As a human being and as a comedian, I cannot wait for this to be over."........

  • October 13, 2020

    ........Trump on Biden: "Wouldn't be president for two months...He's not mentally capable."....Trump on Harris: "A gaffe machine....A monster....She's a communist."....Trump on Pelosi: "Should be under observation."....Trump on Dems: "Scum."....Tommy Vietor on Trump: "High as a giraffe's ass and evasive."....Pence on Biden: "A cheerleader for communist China since day one."....Trump on Biden: "Owned by radical globalists."....Rush Limbaugh on The Rock and Lebron James endorsing Biden: "It is the ChiComs who own them, and it is the Chinese to whom they are loyal."....Tomi Lahren on Biden: "Might as well carry a purse with that mask, Joe."....WaPo's Alexandra Petri on Trump: "There is no one he would not sacrifice."....Secret Service agent to WaPo on Trump's joy ride: "He's not even pretending to care now."....MSNBC's Joy Reid: "A Mussolini moment."....Ron Perlman on Trump: "Needs to have the keys to the country taken away."....Sen. Ted Cruz on NBA support for BLM: "#GetWokeGoBroke."....Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in response: "You are so full of s***."....radio host Mark Levin on Dems: "Have multiple plans to destroy the Republic and our economic system."....WaPo's Dana Millbank on Trump: "Repaying our compassion with reckless disregard and callous contempt for the well-being of anybody but himself...Has set a new standard for selfishness."....Pence aide Karine Jean-Pierre on using a plastic barrier at VP debate: "If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it."....Chris Cuomo: "This President is a walking lie."....CNN's John King on Hunter Biden: "A swamp creature...Trading in his family name to make money around the world."....Robert Reich: "Please stop calling undocumented people who pay taxes 'freeloaders.' A freeloader is a trust-fund billionaire who pays $0 in federal income taxes for 10 out of 15 years and then receives top-notch government-funded health care when he gets sick."....Steve Schmidt: "There is no person in America who has done more to spread COVID-19 than Donald Trump, and no one has tried harder to catch it."....CNN's Jake Tapper on Trump: "You have become a symbol of your own failures. Failures of recklessness, ignorance, arrogance. The same failures you have been inflicting on the rest of us."....Fox News' Chris Wallace: "The president of the United States is in the most secure bubble in the world...and he still got it. So, wear the damn mask!"....George Conway on Trump: "He failed to protect the country. He couldn't even protect himself."....Michael Gerson: "The first debate...was clarifying. One candidate earned the grade of B, maybe a C. The other burned down the schoolhouse...Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime threat to the future of the republic."....NYT editorial board: "Mr. Trump doesn't care if you think he's corrupt, incompetent and self-centered. He just wants you to think everyone else is just as bad, and that he's the only one brave enough to tell it to you straight. It is an effort to dull Americans' sense of right and wrong."....AOC on GOP: "Drinking their own Kool-Aid...An anti-everybody agenda."....Trump: "Bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad things."....CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield on coronavirus task force adviser Dr. Scott Atlas: "Everything he says is false."....David Brooks on Trump: "Shredding every norm of decent behavior and wrecking every institution he touches...The stench of national decline is in the air."....Stephen Colbert on Trump: "The least wise person in history."........

  • October 1, 2020

    ........NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on debate: “That was crazy. What was that?”….CNN's Dana Bash: "I'm just going to say it like it is: that was a s***show."....CNN host Jake Tapper: "That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck."....MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: "A monstrous cavalcade of increasingly wild and obscene lies."....James Fallows: “This was a disgusting moment for democracy. Donald Trump made it so, and Chris Wallace let him.”….NBC’s Lester Holt: “If hearing this debate is over was music to your ears, you may not be alone. I’m at a bit of a loss for words here to describe what we’ve just witnessed.”….CNN's Van Jones: "We are in an immoral swamp of misbehavior. This was not a normal night."....ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "As someone who's watched for 40 years, that was the worst presidential debate I have ever seen."....NYT's David Brooks: "I'm the most horrified I've been in my career as a political journalist."....NBC's Chuck Todd: "A train wreck of the making of one person. We know who did this."....Thomas L. Friedman: “Trump sent a warning. Let’s take it seriously…The most dishonest, dangerous, mean spirited, divisive and corrupt person to ever occupy the Oval Office.”….MSNBC's Nicholle Wallace: "Donald Trump was the abuser and Chris Wallace was among the abused...It felt like an assault on our presidential campaign process."....Heather Digby Parton: "His sweaty face and angry grimace formed the surreal picture of every woman's worst nightmare -- the domineering boss, the cruel boyfriend, the violent father, the abusive husband."....Adrianna McIntyre on Trump: "I can't believe I was ever told that women are too emotional to be president."....historian Jon Meacham: "The incumbent's behavior this evening is the lowest moment in the history of the presidency since Andrew Johnson's racist state papers."....Carl Bernstein on Trump: "Has created the first grifter presidency in the history of the United States, in which his purpose in running for the presidency and exercising the powers of the presidency -- the fundamental reason -- is to bail himself and his family out."....CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale on Trump's debate performance: "An avalanche of lying...A serial liar who keeps serially lying."....MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Trump: "Set himself on fire in front of 100 million people."....former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor: “I think I speak for the majority of people who served under Trump when I say: he demonstrated his unfitness for office tonight. He’s unhinged, untrustworthy, and un-presidential.”….MSNBC's Chris Hayes: "The whole debate is a microcosm of our national nightmare. A complete sociopath barking at everyone as everyone tries their best to kind of work normal."....Steve Silberman on moderator Chris Wallace and Fox: "The Frankenstein his network created bit his head off and s*** it out all over the stage."....Trump on the election: "This is not going to end well."........