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.

  • October 22, 2019

    ................Trump on impeachment inquiry: "A lynching."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on impeachment inquiry: "A joke. A sham....This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American."....Trump: "To me, the word 'impeachment' is a dirty, disgusting word."....Trump on Ukraine whistleblower: "I have a feeling that person doesn't exist. I think Schiff might have made it up."....Richard Painter, WH ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, on Trump: "We don't want a phony president."....Trump on a Democrat winning in 2020: "Your 401Ks would go down the tubes...They'd go down 70, 90, 80 percent -- it would destroy the country."....Joe Biden on Trump: "Mr. President, release your tax returns or shut up."....HRC on Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: "She's the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and ways of supporting her."....Gabbard on HRC: "The queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long."....Rep. Justin Amash on HRC: "A Donald Trump asset."....Trump on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "She's nuts."....Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: "[Liberals] are not our opponents, they are our enemy."....Trump on Dem presidential candidates: "I don't really believe anymore that they love our country."....Dan Rather: "I cannot remember a time when the world saw the United States this unsteady, adrift, corrupt, or incompetent."....Sen. Jeff Merley on Trump G-7 Doral plan: "A violation of the Constitution. It's an abuse of power."....Trump on Beto O'Rourke: "Very dumb."....Sean Hannity on Mick Mulvaney: "I just think he's dumb...I don't even think he knows what he's talking about."....Biden on Trump: "Is running one of the most corrupt governments in the history of the United States of America."....Trump: "The radical Democrats' policies are crazy. Their politicians are corrupt."....Trump on House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff: "A corrupt politician."....Jennifer Horn, former chair of the New Hampshire GOP, on Trump: "He is the most corrupt president in modern times. He has to convince his followers that everyone is corrupt so they will ignore his corruption."....recently called corrupt by Trump: The New York Times. Barack Obama. The 2016 election. Former FBI Director James Comey. Former FBI agent Peter Strzok. Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The entire Mueller investigation. The news media. CNN.....Bruce Bartlett, former Reagan adviser: "Take Nixon in the deepest days of his Watergate paranoia, subtract 50 IQ points, add Twitter, and you have Trump today."....Dan Rather on Trump: "Will run a campaign as mean as a cornered ocelot and as fair as loaded dice."....Trump to Pelosi: "In my opinion, you are a third-rate politician."....Pelosi to Trump: "All roads with you lead to Putin."....Stephen King: "Trump foreign policy will be known in the future as The A**hole Doctrine."....Stephen Colbert on Trump: "The insatiable black hole of news."........................

  • October 15, 2019

    ........................Trump on House inquiry: "A total Impeachment Scam!...Wasting everyone's time and energy on BULLSHIT."....Rep. Jackie Spier on closed-door Ukraine testimony: "It's not just a smoking gun, it's the actual bullet."....John Bolton on Rudy Giuliani: "A hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up."....Robert Reich on Trump: "A xenophobe in public and an international mobster in private."....Trump: "Somebody please explain to Chris Wallace of Fox, who will never be his father (and my friend), Mike Wallace, that the Phone Coversation I had with the President of Ukraine was a congenial and good one."....Chris Wallace: "One of us has a daddy problem, and it's not me."....U.S. Foreign Service veteran William J. Burns: "For dictators, Trump is the gift that keeps on giving, a non-stop advertisement for Western self-dealing."....Trump on Biden: "Was only a good vice president because he knew how to kiss Barack Obama's ass."....Charles Blow on VP Mike Pence: "Looks at Trump like he's made of rainbows and cotton candy."....Rep. Matt Gaetz: "What we see in this impeachment is a kangaroo court, and Chairman Schiff is acting like a malicious Captain Kangaroo."....Trump on impeachment inquiry: "A brazen attempt to overthrow our government."....Newt Gingrich: "An unconstitutional coup d'etat."....Bret Stephens on abandoning the Kurds: "It's evidence that our moral values are tissue paper around the glass fragments of our president's ego...It means that the American sailor or soldier seen on the horizon is no longer 'freedom man.' He's a 'fair-weather friend.'"....Trump on investigation of Giuliani: "Such a one-sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!"....WH Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham on "All the President's Women": "That book is trash and those accusations from 20 years ago have been addressed many times."....Trump on Golden State Warriors coach: "So funny to watch Steve Kerr grovel and pander when asked a simple question about China. He chocked [sic], and looks weak and pathetic. Don't want him at the White House."....Trump on Dems: "Very sick and deranged people."....Jay-Z on Trump: "A superbug."....Trump on Pelosi "She's either really stupid or she's really lost it -- or maybe there's a certain dishonesty there."....Trump on Rep. Ilhan Omar: "America-hating socialist...A disgrace to our country."....Richard Stengel on Trump: "The epicenter of international disinformation."....Trump: "The Do Nothing Democrats are Con Artists, only looking to hurt the Republican Party and President."....Trump on Adam Schiff: "He should be impeached for Fraud!...Do we have to continue listening to his lies?"....Trump on impeachment inquiry: "The greatest scam in the history of American politics."....Rihanna: "The most mentally ill human being in America right now seems to be the president."....Trump: "We have the most dishonest media that you can imagine."....Paul Krugman: "If Trump were cannier and more self-controlled, the march to autocracy might well be unstoppable...Those of us who want America as we know it to survive should be grateful that Trump is so immature and incompetent."....former Asst. Watergate Special Counsel Jill Wine-Banks: "If the President can get away with saying, 'I can't be investigated. I can't be indicted. I can't be impeached,' then he has made himself a king. He is not the democratic ruler of a democracy."....Daniel Ellsberg on Trump: "Is turning out to be a domestic enemy of the Constitution."....Susan Rice on Trump abandoning the Kurds: "This is batshit crazy!"....Pat Robertson on Trump: "In danger of losing the mandate of heaven."....Rep. Louie Gohmert on impeachment inquiry: "This is yet again an example of Democrats projecting THEIR criminal acts on President Trump. President Trump is an innocent man. It is a lawless coup attempt against a duly elected President."....Rep. Devin Nunes: "It's hard to view impeachment as anything aside from an orchestrated farce."....John Dean on Trump: "He wants American voters to choose elected leaders beholden to foreign powers, not Americans. The act of a dictator! Supported by GOP?"....Ken Burns on Trump: "There will always be idiot bigots, and there will always be heroic people trying to stand up to them."....Pete Buttigieg: "Calling this president's behavior childlike is an insult to children."....MSNBC's Chuck Todd: "I don't say this lightly, but let's be frank. A national nightmare is upon us. The basic rules of our democracy are under attack, from the President."....Biden on Trump: "He's the definition of corruption...This guy, like all bullies, is a coward. He does not want to run against me."....biographer James B. Stewart on Trump: "The minute he's caught red-handed, he immediately -- in Roy Cohn fashion -- turns the attack on the people who are criticizing him. If you reveal embarrassing behavior by him, you are a quote-unquote traitor, with the implication that you should be given some kind of death penalty."....Meghan McCain on any Republican who backs Trump's abandonment of the Kurds: "Feckless, unpatriotic cowards."....Lou Dobbs on GOP critics of Trump: "Damn fools."....John Oliver: "Everything Trump does is designed to destroy government from the inside."....Stephen Colbert on Trump: "In the end, Trump may be defeated by his greatest weakness. His Achilles mouth."........................

  • October 8, 2019

    ........................Trump: "The Fake News Media nowadays not only doesn't check for the accuracy of the facts, they knowingly make up the facts...They have gone totally CRAZY!!!!"....Trump on House Intelligence Committee chairman: "Lyin' Shifty Schiff!...A shifty, dishonest guy."....Trump on House Impeachment Inquiry: "A totally compromised kangaroo court, where Republican rights have been taken away, and true facts are not allowed out for the public."....Trump on Schiff: "A sick man."....Trump on Pelosi: "She hands out subpoenas like they're cookies."....Trump on Mitt Romney: "Never knew how to win. He is a pompous 'ass.'"....Trump on Schiff: "He's a low-life. He should be forced to resign."....Trump: "Everything the Washington Post does is fake. It's a fake newspaper."....Trump on Dems: "They are lying and cheating like never before. They and the Fake News Media are Dangerous and Bad."....Trump: "By the way, the Bidens were corrupt!"....Trump on Schiff: "That guy couldn't carry [Pompeo's] jock strap."....Trump: "The press has gone crazy."....Trump on Schiff: "A lying disaster for our Country. He should resign!"....Trump: "The media may be even more corrupt than the Bidens."....Trump on Trump: "The very thing that they are accusing President Trump of doing (which I didn't do), was actually done by Joe Biden."....Eric Trump: "The only corruption worse than Biden's is that of the media."....Donald Trump Jr.: "Who wants to bet that the 'whistle-blower' is going to turn out to be a total partisan hack with close ties to disgruntled even more partisan deep state hacks???"....Trump: "The truth is we have a nation that is disgusted with the FBI."....Trump on Dems: "Inexplicably and without foundation, they choose to hate America."....Trump: "The media is deranged. They have lost their minds."....Trump on Dem presidential candidates: "These are maniacs."....Trump on Schiff: "He lied to Congress and attempted to defraud the American Public."....Trump: "What happened in 2016 is a disgrace to this country."....Trump on 2020: "Democrats want to steal the election."....Trump on NYT's reporting on Justice Kavanaugh: "It is a false hoax."....Trump: "Believe it or not I watch my words very carefully."........................

  • October 2, 2019

    ........................Trump on reporters: "Many of them are scum...Just terrible dishonest people."....Lou Dobbs on impeachment inquiry: "An outright premeditated effort to subvert and overthrow the president of the United States...There must be a countervailing force against these acts of evil."....Newt Gingrich: "This has nothing to do with impeachment. It has nothing to do with the rule of law. It has nothing to do with the facts...This is a coup d'etat."....Sen. Lindsey Graham: "The Salem Witch Trials had more due process than this."....Rush Limbaugh: "It's not just about getting rid of Trump. It's about getting rid of us, this show, talk radio, Fox News, and our freedom to vote. They are fed up with having opposition."....Hillary Clinton on Trump: "A corrupt human tornado."....Sean Hannity on Biden: "Sleepy, creepy, crazy Uncle Joe."....Robert De Niro on Trump: "He's worse than I ever could have imagined... This guy is like a gangster."....Cindy McCain on GOP: "Not the party that my husband and I belonged to."....Donald Trump Jr.: "The Democratic Party hates you. The Democratic Party hates democracy."....Jeffrey Toobin: "There is a cancer on this presidency."....Trump on Joe Biden: "Dumb as a rock."....Trump on Hunter Biden: "He's a stiff, he knows nothing."....AOC on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: "A bumbling, sloppy, dishonest mess, and his mediocrity is accepted as a matter of course."....Donnie Deutsch on Trump: "He would set the country on fire if it would in any way help him."....Seth Meyers: "The only thing stopping our system from just collapsing is that everyone just ignores him. We've all gotten to the point where we have to treat the president of the United States like a guy taking a s*** in the subway car. At some point, everyone's just gonna move to the other end of the country."....The Volatile Mermaid: "Calm down, everyone. Trump is just calling for a civil war. It's not like he did anything really divisive like Obama did by being black."....Trump: "I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die."....Mark Twain: "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."........................

  • September 24, 2019

    ........................Trump: "Almost all the stories the New York Times has done are inaccurate and wrong...The NYT should close its doors and throw away the keys."....George Will on Trump: "We have to clear the ground and remove this awful presence from our lives."....Beto O'Rourke on Trump: "The most dangerous president the United States has ever had."....Trump on O'Rourke: "Dummy."....former Gov. William Weld on Trump Ukraine phone call: "That's not just undermining democratic institutions. That is treason. It's treason pure and simple."....Maureen Dowd on Trump: "Is literally acting like an international mobster."....Trump on NYT: "They've taken the Old Grey Lady and broken her down, destroyed her vrtue and ruined her reputation...They are sick and desperate, losing in so many ways."....former publicist Alan Marcus on Trump: "If he's not in a fight, he looks for one. He can't stop."....former Trump Organization executive Barbara Res: "Trump thinks he's always going to win -- he really does believe that -- and he fights very, very, very dirty."....Anderson Cooper on former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski: "He still wants to please Daddy."....Australian Guardian editor, after being on the road with Trump: "Full and alarming incoherence."....former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich: "The world is in danger...The President of the United States is seriously, frighteningly, dangerously unstable. And he's getting worse by the day."....former Gov. William Weld: "Trump is like every dumb criminal defedant I've ever prosecuted. They all think, 'If it's not in writing, they can't prove anything.' That's not true -- circumstantial evidence is more powerful than eyewitness testimony."....Trump: "Joe Biden and his son are corrupt...If a Republican ever did what Joe Biden did, if a Republican ever said what Joe Biden said, they'd be getting the electric chair right now."....Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: "Trump awaits instructions from his Saudi masters. Having our country act as Saudi Arabia's bitch is not 'America first.'"....Seth Meyers: "The president is obsessing over a map he doctored to defend an embarrassing mistake that he is now lying about."....Joy Behar: "Just sleeping with someone named 'Stormy' doesn't make you a weather expert."....Trump on his primary adversaries: "The three people are a total joke...A laughingstock...I don't know them...They have no credibility."....Anthony Scaramucci on Trump: "He's a clear and present danger to the society now."....Trump at rally: "The radical Democrats want to dismantle, demolish and destroy everything you've gained. And they will do it."....NYT editorial board on members of the Trump administration: "They are charged with serving the public interest, not the president's ego."....Trump on Federal Reserve leaders: "Boneheads."....Trump on Dems: "Are hurting our Country, and getting nothing done."....House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "Why don't you go ask him if he has any regrets for all the people who died because he hasn't acted?"....Jimmy Carter: "It will be a disaster to have four more years of Trump."....Matt Taibbi: "America is the first country to ever elect a Mad King, and the way things are going, we may be dumb enough to do it twice."....Trump to White House reporters: "You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves...You've got a lot of crooked journalists. You're crooked as hell."........................