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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August 6, 2019
........................Gov. Jay Inslee: "We can no longer allow a white nationalist to be in the White House."....Gov. Andrew Cuomo: "This is a president who has fomented hate, let's be honest."....Beto O'Rourke: "Trump sides with a mass murderer's call to make our country more white."....NY Daily News on Trump: "Calls for 'love,' unity and bipartisanship to prevent more mass shootings, but keeps pushing NRA talking points."....Pelosi and Schumer on Trump: "Remains prisoner to the gun lobby and the NRA."....Michelle Goldberg on Trump: "A white nationalist who inspires terrorism."....Michael Tomasky on Trump's response to shootings: "Didn't say much that mattered, and he plainly didn't mean most of what he did say."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Fox News: "A hate-for-profit machine that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists."....Sen. Bernie Sanders on Trump: "Racist, hateful and anti-immigrant rhetoric."....Fox News personality Tomi Lahren to Sen. Kamala Harris: "Did you fight for your ideals or did you sleep your way to the top?"....Trump: "I think the Washington Post is a Russian asset."....Howard Dean: "A vote for any Republican next year is a vote for hate and violence."....Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on winning the presidency: "The first thing I would do is Clorox the Oval Office."....Trump: "If you look at it statistically...the number of shootings, the number of crimes, the number of everything...Baltimore is worse than Honduras, okay?"....AOC on Trump: "We have a predator living in the White House."....Trump on the Squad: "If you are not happy here, you can leave! They can leave and I'm sure there'll be many people that won't miss them...Those tweets were not racist. I don't have a racist bone in my body."....AOC in response: "You don't have a racist bone in your body. You have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on the Squad: "We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country."....Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway on the Squad: "They represent a dark underbelly in this country...A lot of us are sick and tired in this country of America coming last to people who swore an oath of office."....Nancy Pelosi: "When Trump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to 'Make America Great Again' has always been about making America white again."....Trump on Mueller investigation: "Three years of embarrassment and waste of time for our country...The whole thing has been collusion by the Democrats. With the media. With other countries."....Trump on Mueller testimony: "The worst performance in the history of our country."....Trump on CNN debate moderator Don Lemon: "The dumbest man on television...He is supposed to be neutral, unbiased and fair, or is he too dumb (stupid) to understand that?"....Joy Reid on Trump: "Is making the presidency smaller, more corrupt and more irrelevant to the moral life of this country and the world."....Al Sharpton on Trump: "He attacks everybody. I know Donald Trump. He's not mature enough to take criticism. But he has a particular venom for blacks and people of color."......Sen. Chuck Schumer on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "Here's an easy way to stop being accused of blocking electon security: Stop blocking it."....Max Boot on GOP: "It has become a cult of personality for a repugnant person."....Anderson Cooper on Trump: "Trafficking in racist stereotypes and giving voice to some of the most shameful and destructive prejudices in our society."....Charlamagne tha God: "Racism is the American way. In fact, the 'Pledge of Allegiance' shouldn't be 'liberty and justice for all' -- it should be 'liberty and justice for whites, and racism for everybody else.'"....Beto O'Rourke: "Donald Trump is a racist."....Ross Douthat on Trump: "The nihilist-in-chief...He plainly believes in nothing but his ego, his vanity, his sense of spite and grievance, and the self he sees reflected in the mirror of television, mass media, online...To analyze Trump is to discover only bottomless appetite and need, and to carve at him is like carving at an online troll: The only thing to discover is the void."........................
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July 29, 2019
........................Trump to CNN's Abby Phillip: "What a stupid question that is. But I watch you a lot, and you ask a lot of stupid questions."....Trump to PBS Newshour's Yamiche Alcindor: "You're untruthful when you ask that question...And if you were ever truthful you'd be able to write the truth."....Trump to ABC News' Cecilia Vega: "I know you're not thinking, you never do."....Trump on CNN's April Ryan: "You talk about somebody that's a loser. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing."....Trump on Al Sharpton: "A con man, a troublemaker...Hates Whites and Cops!"....Trump on Rep. Elijah Cummings: "Racist...Incompetent."....Baltimore Sun editorial board: "[Congressman Cummings] has been a thorn in this president's side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremicists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don't to scream."....Trump on Baltimore, Cummings' district: "A disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess...A very dangerous and filthy place..No human being would want to live there."....Baltimore Sun editorial board on Trump: "Better to have a few rats than to be one."....Rep. Rashida Tlaib: "Our president has a hate agenda. He doesn't have a policy agenda."....Rep. Jerry Nadler on Trump: "Disgusting and racist."....Joe Scarborough on Sen. Mitch McConnell: "Moscow Mitch."....Trump: "The Democrats are clowns. They're being laughed at all over the world."....Donald Trump Jr. on Dems: "They are now refusing to accept the results of the hoax investigation they not only asked for but were the root cause of."....Laurence Tribe on Trump replacing the Director of National Intelligence: "[Dan Coats] seems unwilling to put loyalty to Trump, Putin, and Moscow Mitch above loyalty to country. A firing offense in this treacherous swamp of a government."....Miami Herald editorial board on Sen. Marco Rubio: "Far from the Republicans' savior, seems just another slick politician with his finger in the wind -- pushing the party deeper into Trump's swamp."....Guardian columnist Hannah Jane Parkinson on Prime Minister of the UK Boris Johnson: "A racist, an inveterate liar, a man who makes Machiavelli look misunderstood and Pinocchio button-nosed."....Seymour Hersh: "By and large, the world is increasingly run by ignoramuses, wackos and psychotics."....Stern magazine cover, with Trump wrapped in American flag and giving Hitler salute: "Sein Kampf."...............................
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July 21, 2019
........................Trump on Reps. Omar, AOC, Tlaib, and Pressley: "If you hate our country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave."....Trump on the US: "The United States has become the laughing stock and a whipping post for the rest of the world....We don't have enough strength in our country....Our country has no spirit, our country has no gravitas....We're a debtor nation....We're broke....We don't know what we're doing as a country....You think our country's so innocent?...Rusted-out factories, scattered like tombstones across the landscape....And the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs....Poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad....We're a foolish country. We're a dumb country....How stupid are the people of the country?...Our military is going to hell....Our infrastructure is terrible, our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our schools, our hospitals -- we're becoming a Third World country....We don't have a country any more....We're dying. This country is dying....The American Dream is dead."....John Dean: "Trump has no concern about how history will treat him because he has never read any history. But for those of us who do read history we know he will be viewed as either an aberrant disaster, or if he is re-elected, the man who destroyed America. Without question our worst POTUS."....Trump rally crowd chanting re Rep. Ilhan Omar, who as a child came to the US from Somalia: "Send her back! Send her back!"....Trump on Reps. Omar, AOC, Tlaib, and Pressley: "Pro-terrorist...Anti-USA....I don't believe [they] are capable of loving our Country."....Sen. Kamala Harris on Trump: "Has taken the presidency to a new low...Needs to go back where he came from and leave that office."....Joe Scarborough: "His Nuremberg Rally...The low point of the Trump presidency."....Trump: "The Washington Post story, about my speech in North Carolina and tweet, with its phony sources who do not exist, is Fake News."....Anthony Scaramucci on Trump attack on The Squad: "Racist and unacceptable."....Rep. Al Green on Trump: "Unfit for office...He's willing to yell 'fire' in a crowded theater...We have a bigot in the White House."....LA Times on Trump: "Bigot-in-Chief."....Rick Wilson on Trump: "Devoted to political arson...Beyond shame, reason, and dignity....[Took] a massive dump on the American Dream."....George Conway: "Naivete, resentment, and outright racism, rolled in a toxic mix, have given us a racist president...Racist to the core."....Rep. Ilhan Omar on Trump: "The worst president we've had."....Trump: "Foul-Mouthed Omar."....RNC ad: "Squad Goals: ANARCHY."....Eric Trump on The Squad: "This is the most hate-filled group I have ever seen before...They say anti-Semitic things every single day."....Newt Gingrich: "This is the Left's strategy. Ignore the facts, disregard the truth, and smear anyone who doesn't agree with you."....Andrew Sullivan on Trump: "His reelection strategy is built on the notions that cruelty can be popular and liberal democratic norms are dead. He might be right."....Rep. John Lewis on Trump: "I know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it...In the '50s and in the '60s segregationists told us to go back...They told ministers, priests, rabbis, and nuns to go back! They told the innocent little children seeking just an equal education to go back. As a nation and as a people we need to go forward, and not backwards."....historian Jon Meacham on Trump: "He has joined Andrew Johnson as the most racist president in American history."....Berkeley City Council member Rigel Robinson on Tucker Carlson: "A dangerous, xenophobic, racist, white supremacist goblin."....Sen. Rand Paul on Jon Stewart: "He pretended for years...to be somebody that could see both sides and see through the B.S. Now he is the B.S."....Rush Limbaugh: "Turn on any television show. The odds are it's going to have something in it that literally destroys or attempts to destroy or attacks you, your values, your way of life, the founding of this country. Movies, ditto."....Trump: "People like...Paul Ryan almost killed the Republican Party. Weak, ineffective, and stupid."....Stephen King on Trump: "First, you stoke hatred and fear of minorities. Then you round them up and put them in camps. Next, you send out raiding parties to get those who have been driven into hiding. The armbands come next, right?"....Michael Avenatti on Donald Trump Jr.: "Could someone please explain to Biff that every time he calls me 'the Creepy Porn Lawyer,' he is mocking his father, the Creepy Porn President who had unprotected sex with a porn star while Biff's four-month-old brother was at home? You may have to use crayons."........................
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July 21, 2019
Trump on Reps. Omar, AOC, Tlaib, and Pressley: "If you hate our country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave."....Trump on the US: "The United States has become the laughing stock and a whipping post for the rest of the world."...."We don't have enough strength in our country...."Our country has no spirit, our country has no gravitas."..."We're a debtor nation."..."We're broke."..."We don't know what we're doing as a country."..."You think our country's so innocent?"..."Rusted-out factories, scattered like tombstones across the landscape."..."And the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs."..."Poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad."..."We're a foolish country. We're a dumb country."..."How stupid are the people of the country?"..."Our military is going to hell."..."Our infrastructure is terrible, our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our schools, our hospitals -- we're becoming a Third World country."..."We don't have a country any more."..."We're dying. This country is dying."..."The American dream is dead."....John Dean: "Trump has no concern about how history will treat him because he has never read any history. But for those of us who do read history we know he will be viewed as either an aberrant disaster, or if he is re-elected, the man who destroyed America. Without question our worst POTUS."....Trump rally crowd chanting re Rep. Ilhan Omar, who as a child came to the US from Somalia: "Send her back! Send her back!"....Trump on Reps. Omar, AOC, Tlaib, and Pressley: "Pro-terrorist...Anti-USA."....Sen. Kamala Harris on Trump: "Has taken the presidency to a new low...Needs to go back where he came from and leave that office."....Joe Scarborough: "His Nuremberg rally...The low point of the Trump presidency."....Trump: "The Washington Post story, about my speech in North Carolina and tweet, with its phony sources who do not exist, is Fake News."....Anthony Scaramucci on Trump attack on The Squad: "Racist and unacceptable."....Rep. Al Green on Trump: "Unfit for office...He's willing to yell 'fire' in a crowded theater...We have a bigot in the White House."....LA Times on Trump: "Bigot-in-Chief."....Rick Wilson on Trump: "Devoted to political arson...Beyond shame, reason, and dignity....[Took] a massive dump on the American Dream."....George Conway: "Naivete, resentment, and outright racism, rolled in a toxic mix, have given us a racist president...Racist to the core."....Rep. Ilhan Omar on Trump: "The worst president we've had."....Trump: "Foul-Mouthed Omar."....RNC ad: "Squad Goals: ANARCHY."....Eric Trump on The Squad: "This is the most hate-filled group I have ever seen before...They say anti-Semitic things every single day."....Newt Gingrich: "This is the Left's strategy. Ignore the facts, disregard the truth, and smear anyone who doesn't agree with you."....Andrew Sullivan on Trump: "His reelection strategy is built on the notions that cruelty can be popular and liberal democratic norms are dead. He might be right."....Rep. John Lewis on Trump: "I know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it...In the '50s and in the '60s segregationists told us to go back...They told ministers, priests, rabbis, and nuns to go back! They told the innocent little children seeking just an equal education to go back. As a nation and as a people we need to go forward, and not backwards."....historian Jon Meacham on Trump: "He has joined Andrew Johnson as the most racist president in American history."....Berkeley City Council member Rigel Robinson on Tucker Carlson: "A dangerous, xenophobic, racist, white supremacist goblin."....Sen. Rand Paul on Jon Stewart: "He pretended for years...to be somebody that could see both sides and see through the B.S. Now he is the B.S."....Rush Limbaugh: "Turn on any television show. The odds are it's going to have something in it that literally destroys or attempts to destroy or attacks you, your values, your way of life, the founding of this country. Movies, ditto."....Trump: "People like...Paul Ryan almost killed the Republican Party. Weak, ineffective, and stupid."....Stephen King on Trump: "First, you stoke hatred and fear of minorities. Then you round them up and put them in camps. Next, you send out raiding parties to get those who have been driven into hiding. The armbands come next, right?"....Michael Avenatti on Donald Trump Jr.: "Could someone please explain to Biff that every time he calls me 'the Creepy Porn Lawyer,' he is mocking his father, the Creepy Porn President who had unprotected sex with a porn star while Biff's four-month-old brother was at home? You may have to use crayons."....
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July 11, 2019
........................Trump on Rep. Justin Amash leaving the GOP: "One of the dumbest and most disloyal men in Congress."....Sean Hannity on Robert Mueller: "Basically full of crap."....Tucker Carlson on Mueller: "Sleazy and dishonest."....Laura Ingraham guest Harvey Dhillon on Mueller: "He's that jerk who has to have the last word."....Fox News contributor Brooke Goldstein on Rep. Ilhan Omar: "If she wasn't a member of congress, she would be a member of the KKK."....Trump on Biden: "A reclamation project. Some things are just not salvageable."....Fox News host Jesse Waters on U.S. Women's Soccer Team: "Unpatriotic."....Sir Kim Darroch, U.K. ambassador to the U.S., in leaked messages: "We don't really believe [Trump's] Administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept...Something could emerge that leads to disgrace and downfall."....Trump on Darroch: "The wacky ambassador...A very stupid guy...I don't know [him] but have been told he is a pompous fool."....Fox News contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy on AOC: "Basically wants to give you the wish list for terrorists, the wish list for criminal cartels and sex traffickers, and you have to wonder, is she working for them or is she working for the American people?"....Newt Gingrich on AOC: "Vicious, cruel, and dishonest...eager and determined to undermine and destroy America as we have known it."....AOC on the U.S.: "Are we headed to fascism? Yes, I don't think there's a question."....Ben Shapiro on Megan Rapinoe: "If she was a very good soccer player and she were not a very outspoken lesbian, she would be getting fewer contracts...We're supposed to pretend that she is actually quite charming and wonderful."....Trump on NYTimes: "Writing phony and exaggerated accounts of the Border Detention Centers."....Tucker Carlson on Democratic party: "All race, all the time."....Ted Nugent: "People who call me a racist are the racists."....Rush Limbaugh: "Colin Kaepernick fooled everybody into thinking what he was really concerned about was the killing by cops of African-Americans. But it turned out Colin Kaepernick, all along, was anti-America, and the cop-killing position was just a cover."....Trump: "President Obama wanted to meet, and Chairman Kim would not meet him. The Obama administration was begging for a meeting. They were begging for meetings constantly and Chairman Kim would not meet with them."....Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Trump claim: "At the risk of stating the obvious, this is horses***."....Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes: "Trump is lying. I was there for all eight years. Obama never sought a meeting with Kim Jong Un. Foreign policy isn't reality television, it's reality."....Laurence Tribe on Attorney General William Barr: "He's demonstrated there's no limit to how much s*** he's willing to eat -- or dish out and toss at the public and the other branches of government -- to please his master."....Anderson Cooper on Trump: "There's just something about meeting with Putin that does it to him, that makes him all dictator-curious."....Rep. Joaquin Castro on Laura Ingraham: "You're a white supremicist, Laura. And no, I don't think refugees should be kept in war-zone conditions in the most prosperous nation on earth."....U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe: "I'm not going to the f***ing White House. We're not gonna be invited...[Trump] tries to avoid inviting a team that might decline."....World Cup Final fans in bar, chanting behind Fox News reporter: "F*** Trump!"....Jimmy Kimmel on Trump's 'Salute to America': "His hooray-for-me Fourth of July reach-around rally."....Trump on Mueller Report: "There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. There was no nothing. How many times do we have to hear it?"....Andrew O'Hehir on GOP and Dems: "One party is bent on self-immolation, while the other gazes at the moon and rehearses Prince Hamlet's monologue."....................................