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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November 27, 2020
........Rep. Matt Gaetz: "The Left has a bloodlust that will only be quenched if they come for those who fought with Donald Trump to deliver for the American people."....Rep. Jim Jordan: "They tried to cancel Thanksgiving. Didn't work! They're coming for Christmas next."....Ret. Adm. James Stavrides on Trump: "Has figuratively decapitated our operational civilian leadership in the Pentagon. Jubilant high-fives are the order of the day in Beijing, Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang."....former National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Trump's post-election behavior: "I'm quite sure that Vladimir Putin is doing a happy dance."....former CIA director John O. Brennan on Trump: "I leave his fate to our judicial system, his infamy to history, and his legacy to a trash heap."....MD Gov. Larry Hogan: "We were the most respected country in the world with respect to elections. And now we're beginning to look like we're a banana republic."....Michael Cohen on Trump: "Is acting like a crybaby...He'd rather burn the house down than hand over the keys."....Nic Robertson on G-20 reaction to Trump's defeat: "The combined unspoken message from the world's leaders is: don't let the door hit you on the way out."....Obama to Trump: "Think beyond your own ego."....Trump on Dominion voting systems: "Horrible, inaccurate, and anything but secure."....Tucker Carlson on Trump attorney Sidney Powell: "She never demonstrated that a single actual vote was moved illegitimately by software from one candidate to another. Not one."....Chris Christie: "The conduct of the president's legal team has been a national embarrassment...If you are unwilling to come forward and present the evidence, it must mean the evidence doesn't exist."....Sen. Mitt Romney on Trump pressuring election officials: "Difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American president."....former Federal Election Commission member Trevor Potter on Trump: "What he's saying, explicitly, is if a party doesn't like the election itself, they have the right to change it by gaming the system."....Robert Reich: "Weakening Americans' faith in the fundamental institutions of our democracy will be Trump's most reprehensible legacy."....Trump on the election: "It's a corrupt system."....National Review on Trump: "A bid for infamy."....House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Trump: "A psychopathic nut."....former WH national security adviser John Bolton: "Trump is throwing rocks through windows. I think he's the political equivalent of a street rioter."....MSNBC's Joe Scarborough: "The gig is up. It's time to tell the president that he and Rudy and their confederacy of dunces need to stop making fools of themselves."....MSNBC's Chris Hayes: "Trump's entire life has been just acting like an absolute shameless, bratty, entitled a**hole about everything, and everyone just kind of letting him do it."....Steven Beschloss: "In a sane world, Republicans would reject a lame duck who's urinating in their bed."....Paul Waldman: "It has now become standard practice for any Republican who lost their election, no matter how badly, to claim it was because of fraud."....Rush Limbaugh: "There's simply no way Joe Biden was legitimately elected president."....Lou Dobbs: "Many are trying to steal this election from President Trump. There is no doubt about it."....Trump: "If you count the legal votes, I easily win."....Eugene Robinson on Trump: "Our mad king...The theme of his failed reelection campaign should have been 'Make America Sick Again.'"....former federal prosecutor John Flannery on Trump: "The enemy of the people...The enemy of the state."....Rudy Giuliani: "If you tell me that Philadelphia doesn't cheat on elections, I'm going to tell you you're living on Mars."....Ari Melber: "Mo' Giuliani, mo' problems."....retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey on Giuliani: "A visibly incoherent, dangerous, rabid, shallow fellow."....former WH press secretary Joe Lockhart on Trump: "Will go down in history as America's biggest mistake. Stop giving him what he wants -- attention."....Seth Meyers: "Can we just call this an attempted coup now? Because that's what it is...Even if it doesn't succeed because everyone involved is a moron, that doesn't make it any less horrifying."....Randy Rainbow: "Sorry, but I won't be comfortable calling him President Biden until he wins Georgia at least two more times."....Michael J. Fox: "Biff is president."........
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November 15, 2020
........Trump on Biden: "The worst candidate ever to run in the history of presidential elections...He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING!"....Mary Trump on her uncle: "This is what it looks like when a loser loses."....Rep. Pramala Jayapal: "A sore loser is still a loser."....former Trump casino exec Jack O'Donnell on Trump: "He is not who he says he is. He is a walking lie."....Politico's Michael Kruse: "Trump is an expert liar. The foundation of his existence is lies."....former Trump attorney Michael Cohen: "99.9% of everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie."....Roger Cohen on Trump: "No Bible offers consolation to this man, no creed, no truth, no sense of decency, not even Fox News now, nothing."....former congresswoman Michele Bachmann: "Smash the delusion, Father, of Joe Biden as our president. He is not."....Rep. Matt Gaetz: "Joe Biden cannot be Commander in Chief. He can barely be commander of a sentence."....Tucker Carlson: "We have no clue what Joe Biden actually thinks, or even if he's capable of thinking."....Trump: "They're trying to rig an election, and we can't let that happen...We have so much evidence, so much proof."....CNN's Daniel Dale on Trump's November 5th press conference: "The most dishonest speech of his presidency."....WaPo's Philip Bump: "A speech of historic dishonesty...Will be studied for years, just as the Oval Office recordings of Richard M. Nixon are studied."....Jim Acosta: "The president is lying right now. Over and over and over."....Thomas L. Friedman: "In the 2000 election Al Gore took a bullet for the country. Tonight President Trump put a bullet into the country. Most shameful thing I've ever seen."....Rep. Adam Schiff: "The most dishonest and anti-democratic moment in the history of the presidency...Undermined the very foundation of our democracy."....former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge: "The President disrespected every single American who figured out a way to safely vote amid a pandemic that has taken 235,000 lives...Absolutely shameful. Yet so predictable."....David Remnick: "There has never been a more dangerous speech by an American President...An unstable authoritarian trying his best, on live television, to undermine one of the oldest democratic systems in existence."....Sen. Chris Murphy: "It's a lie every five seconds. Not small lies either. Just nuclear-grade whoppers."....Anderson Cooper on WH press secretary Keyleigh McEnany: "Taking us completely through the looking glass and to a galaxy far, far away."....Michelle Goldberg: "It's hard to tell whether Donald Trump is attempting a coup or throwing a tantrum."....former RNC chairman Michael Steele: "We need to stop carrying Donald Trump's baggage, as a country...And if [he] wants to be that stubborn little brat standing in the middle of the mall stamping his feet, refusing to move, okay."....former Secretary of Defense William Cohen on GOP: "The way they are conducting themselves is more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy."....Thomas L. Friedman: "Once Trump was allowed to spread the 'birther' lie for years...he realized he could get away with anything."....Sec. of State Mike Pompeo: "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."....NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly: "Might Pompeo point us to a state on the map where there's evidence of widespread voter fraud?"....Cindy McCain on Trump's post-election behavior: "Only serves to make the rest of us who did vote for [former] Vice President Biden know we did the right thing."....Sean Hannity on Democrats: "They're sycophants...I'm sick of all these people."....Tucker Carlson on Dems: "They want to make you drink Starbucks every day from now until forever, no matter how it tastes."....Jeanine Pirro: "To all those Trump-hating demon rats and the mainstream media: Keep up the antics. You're all losers. Sore losers. Stupid losers. Too dumb to even know that you're losing."....MSNBC analyst David Plouffe: "I think Republicans in the Congress have given up on our Democracy."....CNN'S Jake Tapper on GOP leaders: "Acting like babies."....Trump on election: "A fraud on the American public...An embarrassment to our country."....Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney: "What the president needs to do is, frankly, put his big boy pants on. He needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost."....Biden campaign spokesperson on Trump: "The United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House."....Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on election: "This is an example of the ugly face of liberal democracy in the U.S. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is absolutely clear, the definite political, civil, and moral decline of the US regime."....Vladimir Putin: "The liberal idea outlived its purpose."....Anderson Cooper on Trump: "He wants to take everybody down with him, including this country."....former CIA director John O. Brennan: "Trump will never acknowledge he lost the election. Honesty and accepting reality are not in a despot's DNA."....Stephen Colbert on Trump: "Il Douchey."....Seth Meyer on Trump: "The single most annoying person on the face of the earth."....Jake Tapper: "Some say the world will end in fire. Others say at Four Seasons Total Landscaping north of the Tacony-Palmyra bridge, near the porn shop."....state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta on Rudy Giuliani: "The only thing the mayor's comments prove is that he has lost his mind."....Dan Rather on Trump: "Dude. You lost."........
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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."........
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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."........
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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."........