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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December 31, 2019
........................Trump on former FBI director James Comey: "Scum!"....Trump on chairman of House Judiciary Committee: "No Nads Nadler."....Trump on political opponents: "Band of thieves...do not like our military...witch hunts...maniacs...betrayed the American people...socialism and blatant corruption."....Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald Reagan, on Trump: "His cruelty really is limitless, his sense of decency nonexistent."....Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Trump: "To fact-check him is to be all but dead to him and his legion of supporters...There are no grays. No middle ground. You are either all-in or you're just out. Loyal on everything or not to be trusted on anything."....Elizabeth Warren on Trump: "The most corrupt president in history."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on Dems: "Have buyer's remorse about impeachment...They know their case is falling apart in the eyes of the American people."....Trump on Dems: "Their case is dead, their poll numbers are horrendous!"....Jerry Falwell Jr.: "I predict the 2020 election will be Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the Dems."....Rudy Giuliani on George Soros: "Soros is hardly a Jew. I'm more of a Jew than Soros is...He doesn't go to religion -- synagogue...He's an enemy of Israel. He's elected eight anarchist DA's in the United States. He's a horrible human being."....Dana Milbank on Trump impeachment-night speech: "An alarming blend of instability and rage."....Trump on impeachment: "Illegal, unconstitutional...lawless, partisan...depraved...A disgrace...the antithesis of what it means to be an American."....George Conway on Trump: "IMPOTUS (Impeached President of the United States)."....Trump on news photographers filming his rally: "These guys are a part of the Democrat Party."....Trump: "Crazy Nancy Pelosi should spend more time in her decaying city and less time on the Impeachment Hoax!"....Trump: "New York City and State are falling apart...Gov. Cuomo has lost control, and lost his mind."....Dave Barry on Trump tweets about his Ukraine phone call: "Sounds increasingly like a derelict arguing with himself in an alley next to a convenience store, but not as coherent."....Donald Trump Jr. in 2016: "Dear Clintons, You know what's deplorable? Being Impeached!!!"........................
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December 18, 2019
........................Trump in letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials."....former GOP strategist Rick Wilson on letter: "Six pages of pure crazy, weapons-grade nuts."....Trump in letter: "You are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution, and you are declaring open war on American Democracy."....Trump biographer Tony Schwartz: "Read Trump's letter to Pelosi as if he were writing it entirely about himself...Pure projection...An utterly desperate cry to be excused for a life of lies and hatred."....Pelosi on letter: "Ridiculous...It's really sick."....MSNBC's Ari Melber on letter: "Hyperbolically stupid."....Chris Matthews on letter: "He gets a big load of coal in his stocking."....Trump on Nancy Pelosi: "She's the worst."....Tucker Carlson on Potomac River: "It has gotten dirtier and dirtier and dirtier and dirtier. I go down there and that litter is left almost exclusively by immigrants, who I'm sure are good people."....Trump on former FBI director Comey: "Sleazebag...One of the dirtiest cops our nation has ever seen."....Trump on FBI leaders: "Totally incompetent and corrupt."....former Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on impeachment: "We are here because the president of the United States has treated the Constitution like toilet paper."....Trump on Dems: "The Party of lies and deception!"....Trump on Pelosi: "You view democracy as your enemy!"....former Gov. Bill Weld on Trump: "A one-man crime wave."....Trump on Fox News: "Only pro-Trump Fox shows do well. The rest are nothing."....Thomas Friedman: "The fact that his spokesman only goes on Fox News, and that he only goes on Fox News...they are in a bubble. They don't realize the danger they are in."....Trump on CNN and MSNBC: "Commiecast...Have totally tanked. Their ratings are terrible. They have zero credibility."....Maureen Dowd on Trump: "He did not come to Washington to clean up the tainted system; he came to bathe in it."....John Cleese: "If a Democrat is president, lying about a blow-job is grounds for impeachment. If a Republican is president, betraying his country's defense policy against Russia...isn't. What am I missing here?"....Trump on his impeachment: "The greatest con job in the history of American politics!"....Sen. Josh Hawley on impeachment: "This whole thing is a joke...There's nothing there."....Sean Hannity: "A toxic political stunt."....historian Douglas Brinkley on being impeached: "It makes you part of the Loser's Club of history."....Trump on Pete Buttigieg: "I mean, you have Alfred E. Neuman who's running. Who likes this guy?"....Steve Silberman on Mitch McConnell: "Proof that in America, any ambitious white nerd can grow up to be a Russian asset, the greatest traitor in U.S. history, and personally responsible for the coming misery of millions who will die with no access to health care."....Susan Glasser on impeachment hearings: "A fact-checker's nightmare of half-truths and Trumpian talking points."....Rob Reiner on GOP: "Perfectly fine with Trump pissing all over Democracy."....Trump on Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "She opened that fresh mouth of hers."....Trump on France's president Macron: "A pain in the ass."....Michael Tomasky on Attorney General William Barr: "A clear and present danger...When you believe godless Democrats are hell bent on destroying the country, everything is permitted to re-elect Trump."....former AG Eric Holder on Barr: "Unfit to serve as attorney general."....Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Like the swindler that he is, the president used charity money for veterans to pay off his own debts...The most corrupt president in modern history. Now even Mr. Trump has admitted his corruption."....Robert De Niro on Trump: "A dirty player."........................
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December 9, 2019
........................Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner on Dems: "You have made Joe McCarthy look like a piker."....Trump on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "Unhinged."....Trump on Rep. Adam Schiff: "A corrupt politician and a criminal...A stone-cold loser. Has been almost all his life."....Newt Gingrich on impeachment: "A modern day lynch mob."....WH attorney Pat Cipallone to House Judiciary Committee chairman Nadler: "As you know, your impeachment is completely baseless."....Rush Limbaugh on Dems: "They're making no bones about the fact that they really don't care about the American people."....Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter: "Hell, they practically boost and promote anyone who talks s*** about and hates America."....Ann Coulter on GOP senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney: "Legendarily feckless old ladies."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on impeachment: "The whole thing is a joke."....HRC: "I don't know what's happened to Lindsey Graham...It's like he had a brain snatch, you know?"....Donald Trump Jr. on Dems: "Care much more about trying to hurt Donald Trump than they do helping Americans."....Mike Murphy on Rudy Giuliani: "Going to be on the cover of Fall From Grace magazine."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "Donald Trump embarrasses America on the world stage, and he does it repeatedly."....Trump on Democrats: "You almost question whether or not they love our country and that's a very serious thing. Do they love our country?"....Trump on impeachment: "A joke."....Trump on Fox News: "Panders. Pathetic!...Fox should stay with the people that got them there, not losers!"....Trump on impeachment inquiry: "The whole thing is a hoax. Everybody knows it."....Kellyanne Conway: "It's not just a hoax -- what is the process?"....FL congressional candidate George Buck on Rep. Omar, Rep. Tlaib, and AOC, in fundraising letter: "We should hang these traitors."....Ted Cruz on Ukraine: "Blatantly interfered in the [2016] election."....Rick Wilson on Tucker Carlson: "A pro-Putin shill on a network that looks away from their pet president's grotesque subservience to the Russian leader who helped elect him."....David Rothkopf: "Trump, his administration, and the GOP have made a conscious choice to align themselves with Putinism. It is not unwitting."....Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Dems: "The irony, of course, is that Putin, for all his faults, does not hate America as much as many of these people do."....Ambassador Michael McFaul: "You are wrong, Mr. Carlson. Putin does hate America. You (I assume unwittingly) help his anti-American objectives with these ill-informed rants. Be a patriot. Stop attacking Americans and defending Putin."....Trump on Dems: "Have thrown a wrecking ball at our Democracy."....Rep. Mike Quigley: "This is a president that has never been held accountable for anything he has done."....Trump on Dems: "Haven't come up with a smocking gun.".....NK senior official Kim Yong Choi on Trump: "A heedless and erratic old man."....Trump on impeachment: "Shouldn't even be allowed."........................
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December 2, 2019
........................Donald Trump Jr.: "No one trusts the media...They're full of crap."....radio host Mark Levin: "The media are full of hate for this country."....former Gov. Mike Huckabee: "When the law enforcers turn out to be the law breakers, then we have totally upended the rule of law. Nobody is safe and everybody is in trouble. Our system of government is under attack."....Trump: "The whole Russia thing was a Hoax, and the Ukraine thing is a Hoax, and the Democrats are a joke."....Carl Bernstein on Trump: "Untruthful in ways and to an extent that had never been dreamed somebody holding the Oval Office could be."....Jordan Libowitz, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, on Trump: "Our founders designed three co-equal branches set to check and balance each other. If they wanted a king, they would have made a constitutional monarchy. They did not."....Kellyanne Conway on Mueller Report: "A big bomb."....Trump on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "She's crazy as a bedbug. She is nuts."....Rick Wilson on Rep. Devin Nunes: "Has the IQ of a cup of warm yogurt."....Laurence Tribe on Trump: "A completely lawless presidency."....Turkey's President Erdogan on Sen. Lindsey Graham: "I told him what he needed. He learned his lesson."....Rep. Jackie Speier: "The President of the United States has five Pinocchios on a daily basis."....Kellyanne Conway on Bloomberg campaign ad: "All unicorns and rainbows."....Bernie Sanders on Bloomberg: "Making a bet about democracy in 2020: He doesn't need people, he only needs bags and bags of money."....former Gov. Mike Huckabee on Bloomberg: "Nanny Boy."....Michelle Goldberg: "With the exception of national security professionals sticking around to stop Trump from blowing up the world, there are two kinds of people in the president's orbit -- the immoral and the amoral."....Donald Trump Jr. on Biden: "He can't complete a sentence."....George Conway on Rep. Elise Stefanik: "Lying trash."....Stefanik in reply: "You need serious help. My opponent Taxin' Tedra can have your sick misogynist support."....Kellyanne Conway on Rep. Rashida Tlaib: "Foul-mouthed what's her name."....Donald Trump Jr. "The left will stop at nothing till they have full control of how you're allowed to think."....radio host Craig Silverman: "I see corruption and blatant dishonesty by President and his cronies. I also see bullying/smearing of American heroes with courage to take oath and tell truth."....Robert De Niro on Trump: "He calls everything fake because he knows he's fake. So he's projecting."....radio host Mark Levin on De Niro: "Lowlife POS."....Ana Navarro-Cardenas on Trump: "Has mastered the art of drunk-tweeting, sober."........................
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November 20, 2019
........................Trump on impeachment hearings: "A big scam...A kangaroo court led by little Shifty Schiff."....Donald Trump Jr. on Lt. Col. Vindman: "Look at his stammering responses...A low level partisan bureaucrat and nothing more."....Rep. Devin Nunes on hearings: "The direct-to-TV sequel to the Russia collusion hoax."....Thomas L. Friedman: "Congressman Devin Nunes and Senator Lindsey Graham have a contest going over who can debase themselves in public the most by defending indefensible actions by Trump."....House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on hearings: "Hours of hearsay from handpicked witnesses that have never even met the president."....Rev. Al Sharpton: "It was 'hearsay' -- they heard him say it!"....Rush Limbaugh on impeachment testimony: "It is so much smoke and mirrors, it is such a web of deceit. There are sacks of manure in front of everybody here."....Trump on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "The woman is highly overrated. Grossly incompetent."....Pelosi on Trump: "He knows full well that he's in that office way over his head. And so he has to diminish everyone else."....Trump on San Francisco: "A dangerous and disgusting slum."....Eric Trump: "I would be murdered if I did half of what Hunter Biden did."....Donald Trump Jr. on Rep. Eric Swallwell: "Full of s***."....Trump on former Ukraine ambassador's effect on Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Ukraine: "Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad."....Thomas Friedman on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not defending Yovanovitch: "Let his ambassador to Ukraine -- who depended on him for protection -- be stabbed in the back with a Twitter knife, wielded by the president."....Fox Business Network host Lisa Kennedy on Trump attacking Yovanovitch during her testimony: "Makes him look like a big dumb baby."....Rep. Jim Harris on Trump's attack: "Language that would embarrass a mob boss."....Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky: "Not since the McCarthy era of the 1950s has there been as determined a campaign to undermine and discredit career State Department officials. Back then, some 81 officials were forced out of the department."....Deputy Secretary of State William Burns on Pompeo: "Profound political cowardice."....Thomas L. Friedman on Pompeo: "The mark of Cain on his forehead will not wash off."....George Conway to Donald Trump Jr.: "Each of Taylor, Kent, and Yovanovitch has more intelligence, talent, integrity, decency, honor, and patriotism in each of their fingers than you and your father will ever have."....Donald Trump Jr. in response: "A guy who routinely and publicly embarrasses his wife by attacking her boss for the purpose of getting retweets and building his own brand is giving lectures on honor, integrity and decency. I'm sure your family really appreciates it, George. You're a disgrace..."....Conway: "I'm not building a brand because I'm not selling anything. And I'm not selling anything because I've worked for three decades at a job that my father didn't get me."....Slate's Ashley Feinberg on Donald Trump Jr.: "A fully grown father of five with the sensibility of a not-particularly-bright 13-year-old."....Rep. Devin Nunes: "The media, of course, are free to act as Democrat puppets, and they're free to lurch from the Russia hoax to the Ukraine hoax at the direction of their puppet masters."....Trump on CBS's Sunday morning news program: "Deface the Nation."....Trump on Fox News' Chris Wallace: "Nasty and obnoxious...Will never be his father...This kind of dumb and unfair interview would never have happened in the Fox News past."....Rush Limbaugh: "I'd lower my expectations if I were you. If you're expecting what Fox used to be, you need to shift your perspective."....Trump: "The press in this country is really dangerous...We have a very corrupt media."....Trump on testimony by Vice President Mike Pence's aide: "Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is...she should meet with the other Never Trumpers, who I don't know and mostly never even heard of, and work out a better presidential attack."....Trump on his impeachment: "If something like that happened, it would lead to the biggest FALL in Market History. It's called a Depression, not a Recession! So much for 401Ks and Jobs!"....Sen. Chuck Schumer on newly confirmed U.S. Circuit Judge Steven Menashi: "One of the most contemptible nominees to come before the Senate in all my time in this body."....Lena Zwarensteyn of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights on Menashi: "A disgrace."....Attorney General Bill Barr: "It is the left that is engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law."....AOC on GOP Trump defenders: "They're really beclowning themselves at this point."...Joe Scarborough on Trump: "The worst negotiator ever."....Rev. Franklin Graham on first impeachment hearing: "A day of shame for America."....Seth Meyer on Trump: "Who among us doesn't have six work friends who are also criminals?"........................