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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February 11, 2020
........................Trump on those who favored impeachment: "The crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people I've ever known...low-lifes...stone cold crazy...evil...sick...corrupt...scum...bad...horrible...vicious...leakers."....Sen. Bernie Sanders: "The president we are running against is a pathological liar, a racist, a xenophobe, a sexist, a bully and a religious bigot."....Trump on impeachment: "It was all bulls***."....Trump on Sanders: "I think he's a communist...Didn't he get married in Moscow?"....Trump on Rep. Adam Schiff: "A vicious, horrible person."....Trump on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "The most overrated person in politics."....Trump on Sen. Joe Manchin: "A puppet for Schumer and Pelosi."....Lucian K. Truscott IV: "Donald Trump is like a kid who gets on an elevator full of people and pushes the button for every floor."....Dana Milbank: "As our children see our feckless leaders tolerate a [man] without a fiber of virtue, I fear we will all become who he is."....Trump on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman: "Very insubordinate."....Rep. Paul Gosar on Vindman and his twin brother Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman: "The White House is running a two-for-one special today on deep state leakers."....Laurence Tribe: "The Trump Theorem: The breadth of the post-acquittal purge is directly proportional to the shallowness of the acquittal."....former Congressman Joe Walsh: "My Republican Party isn't a party. It's a cult."....John Iadarola on Donald Trump Jr.: "Of all the books Jr. hasn't read, the Bible is the one he hasn't read the most."....Fox News' Andrew Napolitano on Trump: "Clearly guilty...Somewhere, Richard Nixon is smiling."....Sen. Sherrod Brown: "In private, many of my colleagues agree that the president is reckless and unfit. They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong. They know this president has done things Richard Nixon never did. And they know that more damning evidence is likely to come out."....Sen. Mitt Romney on Trump: "Corrupting an election process in a democratic republic is about as abusive and egregious an act against the Constitution -- and one's oath -- that I can imagine. It's what autocrats do."....Laura Ingraham on Romney: "You committed a fraud on the people of Utah, on the Repbulican Party, on the Constitution, and have thoroughly embarrassed yourself."....Trump on Romney: "Used religion as a crutch."....Lawrence O'Donnell: "Each day for the rest of his life Lindsey Graham will live in enraged jealousy of Mitt Romney's courage."....Sen. Chuck Schumer on Trump: "We've never had a president who's as vindictive and nasty as this one, and he strikes fear in the hearts of a lot of people."....Steve Schmidt on Trump: "Has a fetish for autocrats, and it's frightening."....Michael Tomasky on Trump impeachment trial: "This is straight out of East Germany."....David Smith: "To future historians, the impeachment 'trial' offers a glimpse of what an imploding empire might look like."....Rep. Tim Ryan on SOTUS: "I just walked out...I've had enough. It's like watching professional wrestling. It's all fake."....Rick Wilson on SOTUS: "A Bataan Death March of bulls***."....Mika Brzezinski on SOTUS: "A pile of lies."....Pelosi on SOTUS: "A manifesto of mistruth."....Trump on Pelosi: "A horrible person...I doubt she prays at all...I think she's a very confused, nervous woman."....Trump on Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "This woman can't tell the truth."....Trump on Michael Bloomberg: "Mini-Mike...Part of the Fake News."....Trump on Dems: "I see the hatred. They don't care about fairness, they don't care about lying...I think they just want to win, and it doesn't matter how they win."....Schiff on Trump: "Truth matters little to him. What's right matters even less, and decency matters not at all."....Bloomberg campaign adviser Timothy L. O'Brien on Trump: "A corrupt and obscene predator."....Tucker Carlson on Dems: "Now that impeachment is over, maybe we can have our country back...They yammered on for months about some meaningless phone call with a Ukrainian. Nobody outside of Twitter ever cared, not for one minute. The country was always bored by this."....Garrison Keillor: "Mr. Trump wouldn't have been a capable water commissioner in a midsize city, but here he is, running foreign policy based on phone conversations with Tucker Carlson."....Brian L. Ott: "In the end, it will have been Fox News, not Donald Trump, that destroyed democracy."....Ann Coulter: "In two years, Trump will be fawning over Nancy Pelosi while crapping on Reps. Jordan, Meadows, Gaetz, and Nunes."....Bette Midler on Trump's ambition: "If he wins again, he will rule you until he dies, you die, or both. Then...you'll get Ivanka."....Stephen Colbert on Trump and GOP senators: "It's hard to tell where his ass ends and their lips begin."........................
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February 1, 2020
........................Trump on his impeachment: "The most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress."....Sen. Chuck Schumer: "A trial without evidence is not a trial. It's a cover-up."....Rep. Jerrold Nadler on Trump: "A dictator."....Rep. Adam Schiff on Trump: "A president who identifies the state as being himself."....Trump on Schiff: "Mentally deranged."....Sean Hannity on Schiff: "Nobody likes this guy...Like a real-life sociopath in the middle of a meltdown...He can't even open his mouth without vomiting a Russian conspiracy theory."....Tucker Carlson on Schiff: "A wild-eyed conspiracy nut."....Donald Trump Jr.: "There's a reason for his nickname, Full Of Schiff."....Rush Limbaugh: "Schiff is so full of it, folks, the guy could probably float."....Rep. Lee Zeldin to media: "You're doing a great job as Schiff's shills."....Fox News contributor Dan Bongino: "Adam Schiff is like the modern-day Teddy Ruxpin. You put a quarter in his back and he tells you a story."....Trump: "Shifty Adam Schiff is a corrupt politician, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our country."....Schiff on Trump: "A wrathful and vindictive president."....GOP strategist Rick Wilson on Trump: "Couldn't find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter 'U' and a picture of an actual crane on a map."....Ivanka Trump: "Arrogance...and smug ridicule."....Trump on AOC: "Dumb as a rock."....Trump on Sen. Mitt Romney: "A pompous ass."....Sen. David Perdue on Romney: "Jeff Flake on steroids."....Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Romney: "Wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander President Trump during their 15 minutes of fame."....Mike Huckabee on the Ukraine whistleblower: "That is dishonorable, it's dishonest, it's disgusting, and people like that shouldn't be listened to."....Trump on former national security adviser John Bolton: "If I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now."....The View co-host Joy Behar: "It feels like the administration is loaded with bullies...Barr is a bully...Pompeo is a bully. Trump himself is a bully. It's like an organized-crime organization."....NYT columnist Wajahat Ali on Trump: "A cruel vulgarian who debases everyone."....Romney on Trump: "He has made a career out of trashing people by tweet."....Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas on D.C. Trump Hotel lobby: "Like one big cesspool."....Joe Scarborough on Ken Starr: "He literally dragged the corpse of irony out of the grave. He meticulously tied the corpse's neck bone to the back of a tractor, and he ran that tractor throughout the graveyard of stupidity and ran over every headstone before once again kicking dirt on the corpse of irony, again."........................
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January 23, 2020
........................Laurence Tribe: "I had assumed the president's legal team would be reluctant to tell outright lies in front of the Chief Justice. I was wrong...Doofuses."....Trump: "Do you think that Adam Schiff even believes his BullSchiff after lying to the American public for three years?"....Rep. Schiff on Sen. McConnell: "This is not a process for a fair trial. This is the process for a rigged trial."....Laura Ingraham: "The media's covering the 'walking of the articles of impeachment' is the Congressional version of O.J.'s white Bronco chase."....John Dean: "The president's lawyers persistently lied and used false information."....Ann Coulter: "To save money, let's forget about prisons and instead force convicted felons to watch hour after hour of Adam Schiff on TV."....George Conway on impeachment trial: "It's like the New York Yankees versus the Bad News Bears."....Meghan McCain on NYT endorsement of Warren and Klobuchar: "A huge act of cowardice...but at this point, I should expect absolutely nothing less from this garbage publication."....Ralph Nader on Trump: "A miserable person with miserable policies."....Donald Trump Jr. on Hunter Biden: "I did 30 hours of testimony in front of Congress for an unsolicited 20-minute meeting, but he can do that s*** for years and nothing? GTFO."....Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini: "The villainous U.S. government repeatedly says that they are standing by the Iranian people. They lie. If you are standing by the Iranian people, it is only to stab them in the heart with your venomous daggers."....Sen. Chuck Schumer on Trump foreign policy: "Erratic, impulsive, and egotistical."....AZ Sen. Martha McSally in response to CNN's Manu Raju's question about impeachment trial: "You're a liberal hack. I'm not talking to you."....Lev Parnas on lobby of Trump Hotel in D.C.: "Like one big cesspool."....Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway on Parnas interview on The Rachel Maddow Show: "That was a TV show, not a court of law."....radio host Mark Levin on AOC: "Such an embarrassing, barely literate moron."....HRC on Bernie Sanders: "Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him."....Trump on HRC: "Nobody likes her."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson: "I want to live in a world where impressive people rise to the top and unimpressive people should be parking my car. [CNN host] Brian Stelter should be parking my car."....Sean Hannity producer Lynda McLaughlin on Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle: "She is very uppity. She is one of those liberal elitists, you know...She's one of those liberals who doesn't work...My heart does not bleed for you, sweetheart. It just doesn't."........................
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January 14, 2020
........................Trump on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "Not operating with a full deck."....Trump on Rep. Adam Schiff: "You little pencil neck..."....Laurence Tribe: "All roads from Trump or McConnell -- and I'd add Kevin McCarthy -- lead to Putin...Our descendants will wonder why we insisted on so narrow a definition of treason."....Donald Trump Jr.: "It would be nice if the Democrats running for president were as in sync with hard working Americans as they are with a murderous and totalitarian regime in Iran."....Sen. Mike Lee on classified briefing on Iran: "Insulting and demeaning...Probably the worst briefing, at least on a military issue, I've seen in my nine years...Telling us that we need to be good little girls and boys and run along and not debate this in public. I find that absolutely insane."....Fox News' Lou Dobbs on Lee: "[A] Benedict Arnold impression...Having something of a snit fit."....Fox News' Sean Hannity on Dems: "They have decided in their insanity and psychosis and rage to abuse [the power of impeachment] and bring up what is a non-case."....Sen. Ron Johnson on impeachment charges: "Pretty thin gruel."....Trump on Soleimani: "He's been called a monster, and he was a monster. And he's no longer a monster. He's dead."....Sen. Tammy Duckworth: "We all know this president has zero impulse control."....GOP strategist Rick Wilson: "The assertion by Lindsey Graham that today's bizarre performance by Sniffles the Clown was on par with 'Tear Down This Wall' is part of the Saddamificaton of the GOP."....Rep. Doug Collins on Dems: "Are in love with terrorists. We see that they mourn Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families."....Preet Bharara on Collins: "I don't know what Doug Collins has ever done for America except preen and sound stupid."....former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley: "The only ones mourning the loss of Soleimani are our Democrat leadership."....Rep. John Rutherford on Rep. Pamila Jayapal: "You and your squad of Ayatollah sympathizers are spreading propaganda."....Colin Kaepernick on killing Soleimani: "There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on Kaepernick: "A loser on and off the field...He's a racist. If you're looking for racism in America, Mr. Kaepernick, look in the mirror."....Rand Paul on Graham: "He insults the Constitution and the Founding Fathers."....Piers Morgan on criticism of killing Soleimani: "Pathetic two-faced liberal bleating."....radio host Mark Levin on Nancy Pelosi: "No moral compass."....Trump on Pelosi: "She will go down as perhaps the least successful Speaker in U.S. history!"....George Conway on Trump: "It's outrageous that the United States has a president who is so dumb that he doesn't know how to spell 'outrageous.'"....Meat Loaf on Greta Thunberg: "She's been brainwashed into thinking that there is climate change, and there isn't...She's been forced into thinking that what she is saying is true."....Outgoing GOP Gov. Phil Bryant: "If Mike Espy and the liberal Democrats gain the [Mississippi state] Senate we will take that first step into a thousand years of darkness."....Rose McGowan to Iran: "We want peace with your nation. We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime. We do not know how to escape. Please do not kill us."........................
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January 7, 2020
........................Trump on impeachment: "In many ways the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on our country...It's become a laughingstock all over the world."....former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt on Trump: "An inept, selfish, boorish, incompetent President."....Paul Krugman on Trump foreign policy: "He imagined that he faced a world of Lindsey Grahams, willing to abandon all dignity at the first hint of a challenge."....Sen. Mitch McConnell on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "A sort of pre-trial hostage negotiation."....Trump on Pelosi: "She's all lies. Most overrated person I know."....Trump on bird-flipping protester at his rally on impeachment night: "A real slob...A disgusting person...She'll get hell when she gets back home with Mom."....Gen. Soleimani's daughter Zeinab on Trump: "Crazy."....Thomas L. Friedman on Soleimani: "Possibly the dumbest man in Iran and the most overrated strategist in the Middle East."....Trump on impeachment: "To be spending time on this political Hoax at this moment in our history, when I am so busy, is sad!"....Dana Milbank: "In other words: They can't hold my impeachment trial because I'm busy fighting the war I just started."....Financial Times' Philip Stephens on Trump foreign policy: "Looking for a framework is like searching for symmetrical patterns in a bowl of spaghetti."....GOP strategist Stuart Stevens: "Republicans are now officially the character-doesn't-count party."....Michelle Goldberg on Trump presidency: "There are no more adults in the room."....Trump on Rep. Gerry Nadler: "Incompetent."....Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Trump: "Has no respect for international law...This is state terrorism...He has been fed misinformation. He needs to wake up and apologize."....Michael Moore on Trump-voting white men: "These are not good people."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "The president has become bolder with his lies and more brazen in his law-breaking...Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress have turned into fawning, spineless defenders of his crimes."....Sen. Steve Daines on impeachment: "Sham."....Stephen King on Sen. Susan Collins: "When the chips are down, watch her fall in line behind Moscow Mitch."....Trump on CNN's Chris Cuomo: "He is Fake News, will always be Fredo to us."....Rush Limbaugh: "When Trump meets the press, it's all of them lined up on the driveway at the White House shouting like a bunch of Romper Room six-year-olds...Half the CNN roster and 75% of the MSNBC roster is in the competiton for dumbest person on TV."....Linda Ronstadt on Trump's 2016 candidacy: "I said 'It's gonna be like Hitler, and the Mexicans are the new Jews.' And sure enough that's what he delivered...Find a common enemy for everyone to hate."....former WH ethics chief Richard W. Painter on William Barr: "The most dangerous attorney general in U.S. history."....Biden on Trump assassination of Soleimani: "Just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox."....Garrison Keillor: "The theme of this presidency from the very beginning has been: 'Nothing matters.' You have to admire the civil servants to whom it matters deeply, but the odds are against them."........................