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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June 29, 2019
...............................Trump: "A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream."....Laura Ingraham on Rep. Maxine Waters: "Traitorous babbler."....Trump on rape accusation: "No. 1, she's not my type. No. 2, it never happened."....Laurence O'Donnell: "That's a rapist's answer. A rapist might think that's a good answer."....Kellyanne Conway on criticism for her repeated violations of the Hatch Act: "They want to put a big roll of masking tape over my mouth."....Trump on Mueller testifying to House Intel and Judiciary committees: "Presidential Harassment!"....Sean Hannity on same: "They are harassing the office of the president."....Chris Christie on Chuck Todd: "The most pretentious know-it-all on network news. The guy is just a complete ass."....Trump on Sen. Chuck Schumer: "What a Creep."....Pete Buttigieg on Trump presidency: "A horror show."....Andrew Sullivan on Sarah Palin: "The lipsticked John the Baptist of the Trump cult."....London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Trump: "A six-foot-three child."....Jimmy Carter on Trump immigration policies: "A disgrace to the United States."....Trump on CNN: "Dead as a door nail."....Nicolle Wallace on Trump: "He would appear to know less, if possible, than the day he was elected."....Tucker Carlson on Beto O'Rourke and Sen. Corey Booker: "The two whitest candidates on stage."....Michael Avenatti on Carlson: "Complete hack and a little child."....Trump on Bette Midler: "Washed up psycho...A sick scammer!"....Donny Deutsch on Trump: "A despicable human being."....Trump on Deutsch: "When he makes statements about me, they are made up. He knows nothing!"....Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Trump WH: "Afflicted by mental retardation."....Trump on Democratic Party: "More radical, more dangerous and more unhinged than at any point in the modern history of our country."....Joe Scarborough on debate: "If you're an American and this is your introduction to these candidates and the Democratic Party and all you see are 12 people yelling at each other, trying to interrupt each other and insulting each other, you're like 'You know what? I thought Donald Trump was a clown show. I'm changing the channel.'"....Trump on Biden and Sanders: "One is exhausted, the other is nuts."....John Dean: "Would someone get Trump a dog. He needs a friend so he won't vent endlessly on Twitter. He's uninterested in government and policy. He doesn't read. He doesn't exercise. He has no real friends. A dog might save humankind."................................
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June 12, 2019
........................................Joe Biden on Trump: "He gets up in the middle of the night to attack Bette Midler...A stunning display of childishness."....Trump on Biden: "When a man has to mention my name 76 times in his speech, that means he's in trouble."....Pelosi on Trump: "I don't want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison."....Trump on Pelosi: "I think she's a disgrace...She's incapable of doing deals. She's a nasty, vindictive, horrible person."....Rep. Devin Nunes: "In the future, if you look up the words 'dirty cop' you will see pictures of Comey and McCabe."....Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Trump: "Got his deferments for the wrong thing...They should have been for that yellow streak down his back."....Trump on Biden: "I'm only here because of Sleepy Joe and the man who took him off the 1% trash heap, President O!"....Roger Stone on former CIA Director John Brennan: "This psycho must be charged, tried, convicted -- and hung for treason."....Trump on NYT: "It will pass away when I leave office in six years."....London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Trump and far-right politicians of Europe: "Using the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support."....Trump on Khan: "I don't think much of him...He's the twin of de Blasio, except shorter...A stone cold loser."....Trump: "Hard to believe that Fox News is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete. Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems."....Brit Hume: "Say this for Buttigieg. He's willing to be questioned by Chris Wallace, something you've barely done since you've been president. Oh, and covering candidates of both parties is part of the job of a news channel."....Trump: "When the world watches CNN, it gets a false picture of USA. Sad!...It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News!"....Biden on Kim Jong Un: "A thug."....North Korea on Biden: "A fool of very low IQ...An imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being, let alone a politician."....Trump: "Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-IQ individual. I probably agree with him on that."....Laurence Tribe: "POTUS thinks his whole Royal Family is above the law."....Pete Buttigieg on Trump tweets: "It is the nature of grotesque things that you can't look away."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Fox News: "A hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists."....Trump: "Biden is a dummy."....Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on Trump: "We're expecting more from preschoolers at times than our president. That's not a role model, I think, most families want for their kids."....Samantha Bee: "Men don't love anything more than policing women's bodies."....Seth Meyers on Trump: "The Kramer of international diplomacy."................................
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May 15, 2019
........................Eric Trump on NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio: "Our great city has gone to s*** under your leadership."....De Blasio: "Spare me. You and your dad have spent decades evading taxes and stiffing your workers."....Ben Domench, husband of Meghan McCain, on Seth Meyers: "The untalented piece of s*** who only has his job because he regularly gargled Lorne Michael's balls."....Trump on Sen. Richard Blumenthal: "Da Nang Dick."....Fox News contributor Dagen McDowell on AOC: "She is a socialist from New York City, she photographs well, she speaks with her hands, but beyond that, does she matter?...Beauty fades, stupid is forever."....former FBI Director James Comey on Trump: "Immoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them."....Trump on Comey: "A disgrace to the FBI and will go down as the worst director in its long and once proud history. He brought the FBI down."....Rush Limbaugh on CNN host Chris Cuomo: "Fredo Cuomo knows a joke when he sees one. He looks in the mirror every day."....Trump on Mueller investigation: "TREASONOUS HOAX!"....HRC: "The real story is the Russians interfered in our election. And Trump committed obstruction of justice."....Trump on Pete Buttigieg: "Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States."....Rep. Steve Cohen on Trump administration: "The Black Sox look clean compared to this group."....MSNBC's Nicole Wallace on Barr testimony: "I'm not going to dance around this...We've got an Attorney General lying about what is in the Mueller report."....Sen. Mazie Hirono on Barr: "Now the American people know that you are no different from Rudy Giuliani or Kellyanne Conway or any of the other people who sacrificed their once decent reputation for the grafter and liar who sits in the Oval Office."....Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on Barr: "Evasive, abrasive, and unpersuasive."....Robert Reich on Barr: "A lackey, a lapdog to Donald Trump."....Barr on letter from Mueller critical of his public comments: "The letter's a bit snitty, and I think it was probably written by one of his staff people."....Trump on senators Booker, Harris, and Klobuchar at Barr hearing: "Up there ranting and raving. Like lunatics, frankly!"....Sen. Lindsey Graham on asking Mueller to testify: "Enough already. It's over...I'm not retrying the case. It is over."....Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano on Trump obstruction: "Unlawful, defenseless and condemnable."....Trump on Napolitano: "Dumb."....Dana Milbank on Trump July 4th plans: "The worst case of parade envy that I've ever heard of."....Hardball's Chris Matthews: "There's a part of the president that's eight years old.".............................
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April 29, 2019
..................Trump on former FBI and Justice Department officials: "Scum...Dirty cops."....former CIA Director John Brennan on Trump: "Sociopathic ramblings."....former Gov. William Weld: "The Mueller report revealed that Donald Trump is a one-man crime wave...For the good of the country, if he had the self-awareness that Richard Nixon did, he would resign."....Trump on Mueller investigation: "Trying for an overthrow, and we caught 'em."....Laurence Tribe on AG William Barr: "Why he decided to become a lackey for this corrupt bully of a president is just beyond comprehension...He's willingly harming America and the rule of law."....Trump on Dems: "Their collusion delusion has been exposed to the world as a complete and total fraud."....George Conway on Trump: "Deranged Donald."....Sam Donaldson on WH Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "Simply lies about everything, not just one thing...I feel a little sorry for her because it's the boss who does it. She takes the cue from him."....historian Ron Chernow on Trump: "A relentless campaign against the very credibility of the news media."....Trump on 'Morning Joe': "Morning Psycho...has nosedived, too Angry Dumb and Sick. A really bad show with low ratings - and will only get worse."....Donald Trump Jr. on Bernie Sanders: "Breadline Bernie."....prison-bound former aide Bridget Anne Kelly on Gov. Chris Christie: "You are a bully and the days of you calling me a liar and destroying my life are over."....Dana Milbank summarizing Mueller report: "'Too stupid to conspire, too incompetent to obstruct.'...Would add...'Too dumb to govern.'...Above all, Trump is bumbling."....Rep. Bill Pascrell: "This administration's contempt for rule of law is without peer."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on Bill Clinton, 1999: "This is a person out of control...He is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the land. He encouraged people to lie for him. He lied. I think he obstructed justice. I think there's a compelling case...that [it] would be better for him to leave office than stay in office."....Donald Trump Jr. on HRC: "The worst candidate in the history of the Presidency."....Paul Krugman: "The modern GOP is perfectly willing to sell out America if that's what it takes to get tax cuts for the wealthy."....Trump on Krugman: "Has lost all credibility...He is obsessed with hatred, just as others are obsessed with how stupid he is."....Gail Collins on 2020: "Either one of Pete Buttigieg's dogs would be better than the man we've got in the Oval Office now."....Michael Avenatti on Donald Trump Jr.: "Raised spoiled and stupid...Let's see if you can take that silver spoon out of your mouth long enough to have a real discussion one on one with me. Pick a network - I don't care. Step up or shut up."....Trevor Noah on Mueller report: "You realize that yes, Trump is corrupt enough to want to abuse his powers, but he's also too lazy to follow through. That's a nice thing to know."....Jon Lovett: "This is a zombie White House Correspondents' Dinner for a zombie institution to protect zombie norms during a zombie presidency."....Michael Cohen on Trump: "How come I'm the one that's going to prison?"........................
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April 22, 2019
............................Rudy Giuliani on Mueller investigators: "A staff of Hillary-loving, Trump-hating people."....Trump on Mueller investigators: "Trump Haters and Angry Democrats."....Donald Trump Jr.: "The mainstream media has no decency."....Trump: "It was the Democrats who committed the crimes."....Andy McCarthy on Mueller investigation: "Dirty dealings of dirty devils."....Ross Douthat on Mueller report: "Donald Trump as an amoral incompetent surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own over-promoted children, who is saved from self-destruction by advisers who sometimes decline to follow orders, and saved from high crimes in part by incompetence and weakness."....Lawrence O'Brien on Trump giving thiry-plus I-don't-remembers to Mueller in his written testimony: "It was like he failed an Alzheimer's competency test."....Maureen Dowd: "The First Narcissist's all-consuming blend of braggadocio and insecurity has turned Washington and its rickety institutions into a dystopian outpost of his id."....Andrew Sullivan on Trump: "In a contest between his own diseased ego and the rule of law, there has never been any contest...His presidency is a cancer in our Constitution and way of life."....Chauncy DeVega on Trump: "Fired [Homeland Security Director Kirstjen] Nielsen because she was not cruel enough to immigrants, refugees and migrants,...not willing to violate the law at his command."....Robert De Niro on Trump: "A total loser."....outgoing French ambassador Gerard Araud on Trump: "An extrovert, really a big mouth, who reads basically nothing or nearly nothing, with the interagency process totally broken and decisions taken from the hip basically."....former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik on Rep. Ilhan Omar: "Infatuated with Al Qaeda, with Hamas, Hezbollah."...."Fox and Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade on Omar: "You have to wonder if she's an American first."....Tucker Carlson: "The Democrats want what they've always wanted; total and complete control over you and this country."....Laurence Tribe on Attorney General Barr: "A pathetic porcine puppet for a puerile president...How Barr, whom I once worked with and respected, can look himself in the mirror or sleep at night is beyond me."....House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Barr: "Going off the rails...He is not the attorney general of Donald Trump. He is the attorney general of the United States."....House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries on Barr: "So-called Attorney General is presiding over a dog and pony show...ZERO credibility."....Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro: "A power-hungry tyrant."....Xu Ba, China ambassador to Chile, on Pompeo: "Lost his mind."....British Judge on Julian Assange: "The behavior of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interest."....Mitt Romney: "I am sickened by the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office in the land, including the President."....Sen. John Kennedy: "I don't know how the actors in Hollywood have time to make movies, they're too busy molesting each other."....Donald Trump Jr. on criticism of the phrase "chick flick": "Ugh. PC bullshit ruins everything."...........................