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.

  • March 15, 2019

    ........................Sen. John Kennedy on Paul Manafort: "A grifter...He's just a sleazoid."....Chris Christie on Steve Bannon: "A fraud, a nobody, and a liar."....Donald Trump Jr. on CNN: "The programming is such garbage."....Trump on Mueller investigation: "A total Witch Hunt -- All started illegally by Crooked Hillary Clinton, the DNC and others!"....South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg on VP Mike Pence: "How can he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency?"....Trump on Ann Coulter: "Wacky Nut Job."....Donald Trump Jr. on Adam Schiff: "Weasel."....George Conway on Trump: "Wherever he goes and whatever he does, Trump will always be summa cum liar."....Roger Stone: "I now find myself on Crooked Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's hit list."....Trump on Mueller investigation: "There's no collusion...These people are sick."....Donald Trump Jr. on House Intelligence Committee: "They're not looking for the truth. It's a joke."....WH Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Dems: "A radical agenda of making a socialist country, killing babies after they're born, and pushing a 'Green New Deal' that would destroy jobs and bankrupt America."....Trump: "The Democrats have become the anti-Israel party, they've become an anti-Jewish party."....Donald Trump Jr.: "'Little' Michael Bloomberg...never had the guts to run for president."....Brit Hume on AOC: "She's kinda adorable, sort of, in the way that a five-year-old child can be adorable."....Tucker Carlson in 2007: "I love women, but they're extremely primitive. They're basic, they're not that hard to understand."...............................

  • March 3, 2019

    ....................Trump on former FBI Director James Comey: "A bad, bad guy...He was a bad cop, and he was a dirty cop."....Trump on Michael Cohen testifying before House Oversight Committee: "A fake hearing."....Rep. Matt Gaetz on Cohen: "Do your wife and father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for a chat. I wonder if she'll remain faithful while you're in prison."....WH Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Cohen: "It's laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies."....Anderson Cooper "When Cohen testifies...it will be a known liar, who lied for another known liar, because the liar told him to lie and paid him to lie."....Rep. Jim Jordan on Cohen: "Delusional."....RNC on Cohen: "HAVE FUN IN PRISON!"....Trump on Sen. Mazie Hirono: "The crazy female senator from the state of Ohio. She's like a crazed person."....Trump: "I am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad, very conflicted and corrupt people in a Witch Hunt that is illegal and should never have been allowed to start."....Trump on Rep. Adam Schiff: "Little Shifty Schiff."....Trump on Jeff Sessions as AG: "Weak and ineffective."....Trump on NYT reporter Maggie Haberman: "A third-rate reporter...known as a Crooked H flunkie."....Trump: "Robert Mueller put 13 of the angriest Democrats in the history of our country on the commission. One of them was involved with the Hillary Clinton Foundation, running it. Another one has perhaps the worst reputation of any human being I've ever seen -- all killers."....Sen. Ted Cruz on Green New Deal: "Democrats want to kill all the cows."....Bill Kristol on conservatism under Trump: "Reveling in...stupidity."....WaPo Editorial Board: "President Trump is a liar with a defective character -- and, possibly, a criminal."....CNN Security Analyst Sam Vinograd: "How many parts of President Putin's to-do list was President Trump trying to accomplish today?"....Rush Limbaugh on Tom Steyer: "A Democrat billionaire from California who is a gigantic participant in the worldwide man-made climate change hoax."....George Conway on Trump: "Malignant narcissism...Sociopath."....Donald Trump Jr. on Dems: "They really hate Trump much more than they like America."....Joe Scarborough on Donald Trump Jr.: "Fredo."....Bill O'Reilly on progressives: "They are now running wild, passing out the pitchforks and whipping up the groundlings. Backed by mobs of Twitter assassins and financed by shadowy groups like MoveOn and Media Matters, the far left can hurt you quick. And will. Happily."....Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Trump administration: "The extremist Ku Klux Klan government that Donald Trump directs wants a war over oil, and more than just oil."....David Corn on Trump and Kim: "It is sickening to watch a president of the United States suck up to a murderous tyrant."....Gail Collins on Trump: "He's our own special unique despot wannabe."....Dwight Garner: "We will be reading about Trump and his administration for the rest of our lives, for the exact opposite reason that we will also be reading about Lincoln and his for the rest of our lives."....Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "It's like your kids spewing nonsense at you and you're like, 'Quiet, quiet. Learn something before you come back to me.'"....Rush Limbaugh on AOC: "Grow up."....Matt Lewis: "They say you never stand so tall as when you stoop to kiss someone's ass. If this is true, then Trump is surrounded by giants."....Trump on Dems: "They don't mind executing babies after birth."....Michelle Malkin on the U.S.: "Our shining city on a hill has become a much-abused doormat to the world."....former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Trump: "I just have trouble accepting him as a person, and so franikly I don't see anything he's doing right...In hindsight, I wish every day for a George Bush again."....Trump on former Sen. Harry Reid: "Working hard to put a good spin on his failed career. He led through lies and deception, only to be replaced by another beauty, Cryin' Chuck Schumer."....Ex-CIA Director John Brennan on Trump remarks: "You shame yourself and the Office of the Presidency every time you try to smear those who dedicate their lives to public service. [They] have worked selflessly on behalf of their fellow citizens, something unfamiliar to one as selfish as you."....Soledad O'Brien: "Our president is a moron.".....Trump on Beto O'Rourke: "A young man who's got very little going for himself, except he's got a great first name."...................................

  • February 24, 2019

    ...............Trump: "The Mueller investigation is totally conflicted, illegal and rigged!"....former solicitor general Neal Katyal: "If this is a witch hunt, Mueller's found a coven."....Trump on former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe: "A disgrace to the FBI and a disgrace to our Country...A puppet for Leakin' James Comey...Deranged...So many lies...A poor man's J. Edgar Hoover."....McCabe: "It's not the first time I've had to listen to the president say bizarre and untrue things about me."....Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway on McCabe: "Tried to overthrow a democratically-elected president."....former Trump WH communications aide Cliff Sims on Conway: "It became hard to look long at her without getting the sense that she was a cartoon villain brought to life."....Donald Trump Jr. on Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Breadline Bernie."....Sean Hannity on Rep. Adam Schiff: "Shady Schiff."....former Gov. Chris Christie on Omarosa's WH memoir "Unhinged": "A crazy book."....Dutch historian Rutger Bregman to Fox News host Tucker Carlson: "You are a millionaire funded by billionaires...You're not part of the solution, Mr. Carlson. You're part of the problem."....Carlson on Bregman: "Why don't you go f*** yourself, you tiny brain...You're a moron...Too f***ing annoying."....Alabama newspaper publisher Goodloe Sutton: "Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again. If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C. we'd all been better off. We'll get the hemp ropes out."....Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Trump: "Yankee go home!"....Rush Limbaugh on Mueller investigation: "These guys, the investigators, ought to be in jail...This is one of the greatest political hoaxes ever perpetrated on the people of this Country."....Jonathan Alter: "It's time we start calling Trump's behavior what it is -- UnAmerican."....Trump on DOJ: "In desperate need of an infusion of credibility."....Rep. Mo Brooks: "[There are] thousands of Americans who are dead each year because [of] the Democrats' refusal to secure our borders."....Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller: "We've had thousands of Amerians die year after year because of threats crossing our southern border."....Bill Maher on Trump emergency declaration monologue: "This was just one long, baseless, incoherent, stream of consciousness, call-the-nursing-home rant."....Seth Meyers: "Sounds like a five-year-old telling you what he saw at the zoo."....Eugene Robinson: "We have a national emergency, all right. Its name is Donald Trump."....Sean Hannity on immigration compromise: "Garbage."....Ann Coulter: "The goal of a national emergency is for Trump to scam the stupidest people in his base for two more years."....Rep. Adam Schiff: "Trump is declaring a national emergency to bypass Congress, to build a wall we don't need, to address a crisis that doesn't exist, by claiming an authority he doesn't have. If that sounds like nonsense, it's because it is. It's also plainly unconstitutional."....NYT Editorial Board on Trump: "Takes executive overreach to dizzying new heights."....Dan Rather: "I'm old enough to remember when 'national emergency' actually meant an emergency to the nation and not an emergency to a damaged political ego."....former MA Gov. Bill Weld on Trump: "Is simply too unstable to carry out the duties of the highest executive office in the land."....Jeffrey Goldberg on "Enemy of the People" accusations: "The President of the United States is a threat to the physical safety of journalists."....senior German official on NATO: "No one any longer believes that Trump cares about the views or interests of the allies. It's broken."....Trump to CNN's Jim Acosta: "You are CNN. You are Fake News. You have an agenda."....Eric Trump on Acosta: "Such a clown."....Trump: "We have suffered a totally dishonest media, and we've won, and it's driving them crazy."....former AG Eric Holder on Trump: "Instead of looking only at Fox during the Obama years you should have been paying a bit more attention."....Judd Apatow on Stephen Miller: "He is unhinged and clearly an evil force in this world."....Trump: "Nothing funny about tired 'Saturday Night Live' on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution?"..................................

  • February 9, 2019

    ..........CNN commentator Van Jones on SOTU: "I saw this as a psychotically incoherent speech with cookies and dog poop."....Ann Coulter on SOTU: "This was the lamest, sappiest, most intentionally tear-jerking SOTU ever. Please fire your speechwriter."....Joe Scarborough on SOTU: "If a seventh grader had written that in speech class they would have gotten an F."....Trump on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff: "A political hack. He's just trying to make a name for himself...It's called presidential harrassment."....Donald Trump Jr. on WaPo Super Bowl ad supporting free press and First Amendment: "Leftist BS."....Trump on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "She's very bad for our country."....Stacey Abrams on government shutdown: "A stunt engineered by the President of the United States."....Bill O'Reilly on Abrams: "It is my job to tell you the truth so here it is -- too many Americans are more than happy to accept lies and turn the other way while bad things happen."....Trump on Dems: "Are becoming the party of late term abortions, high taxes, open borders, and crime!"....Tomi Lahren on immigrants from Mexico: "Do you want TB, HIV/AIDS, chicken pox or hepatitis in your communities, at your children's schools? Because I have a feeling the warm and fuzzy spirit of compassion doesn't treat or prevent diseases like those."....Donald Trump Jr. on Dems: "Illegal immigrants [are their] favorite constituents."....senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller: "I would be happy if not a single refugee foot ever again touched American soil."....Rep. Steve King: "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization -- how did that language become offensive?"....Sen. Sherrod Brown: "We have a president who's a racist."....former Trump aide and WH communications staffer Cliff Sims: "Lincoln famously had his Team of Rivals. Trump had his Team of Vipers. We served. We fought. We brought our egos. We brought our personal agendas and vendettas. We were ruthless. And some of us, I assume, were good people."....Charles Krauthammer on Trump: "When the president's id speaks, the world listens."....Trump: "Schumer and the Democrats are big fans of being weak and passive with Iran."....Chris Christie on Trump administration: "Bad people and stupid people lie. People who are not good people, or people who are dumb, lie."....Rep. Maxine Waters on Trump: "A disgusting liar, documented to have lied over 8,000 times in two years."....Trump on NYT: "Treats me so unbelievably terribly."....conservative commentator Mike Cernovich on Trump: "A broken man."....David Gergen: "There are moments when the president seems increasingly unhinged...The most powerful man in the world hears things we don't hear and sees things we don't see. That's hardly reassuring."....Jonathan Alter on Trump: "The Grifter-in-Chief."....Ann Coulter on Trump: "Lazy and incompetent."....Newt Gingrich on Coulter: "She's off here in some fantasyland where she gets to be noisy, which helps her sell books."....former Starbucks employee and union organizer Anne Bellov on a Howard Schultz vs Donald Trump presidential race: "I'd probably vote for Howard. At least he's not insane, just self-interested and clueless."................................................

  • January 30, 2019

    ..........Sen. John Kennedy on Roger Stone: "A total Beavis...He talked himself into an indictment...When his IQ gets to 75, he ought to sell."....Trump on WH memoirist Cliff Sims: "A low level staffer that I hardly knew...He was nothing more than a gofer...He is a mess!"....Sims on Trump: "History's greatest troll."....Ann Coulter on Newt Gingrich: "Trump voters have fallen into two factions: the Tell the Truth faction and the Kiss the Emperor's Ass camp. Newt and I have picked different camps."....Trump on Sen. Richard Blumenthal: "'Da Nang Dick'...An embarrassment to our Country!"....Chris Christie on former National Security adviser Mike Flynn: "Russian lackey and future federal felon."....Trump on Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: "Doesn't have the guts to be president."....WH Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "I don't think we're going to listen to her on much of anything."....Rush Limbaugh: "Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse-Tung all came to power promising the same kinds of things that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is promising. And it led to mass murder, it led to dictatorship, it led to genocide...Folks, this is what the Democrat Party has become."...Eric Trump on Dems: "They don't want law and order...They've become crazy...It's almost an anti-American message."....WaPo editorial board on Trump: "Stark incapacity for leadership...Has failed as a dealmaker."....Stephen King: "How long before Trump supporters realize that you don't surround yourself with dirty guys unless you're dirty yourself?"....Lou Dobbs on Trump shutdown: "Got rolled."....MSNBC's Ari Melber on Trump: "We're seeing a new low in presidential work ethic in contrast to recent presidents who kept far busier schedules."....Trump, showing visitors the WH dining room: "[Obama] just sat in here and watched basketball all day."....Bill Maher on Trump: "A lying conman."....CNN's Jake Tapper on WH attitude toward furloughed workers: "Let them eat Trump Steak!"....CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Fox News: "The administration favors that place because it's the Mothership."....former CIA Director Leon Panetta: "Rudy Giuliani is basically operating like a human pinball machine...Telling too many stories that don't establish themselves in truth."....Lanny Davis on Giuliani: "Mentally unstable."....MSNBC's Joe Scaraborough on Trump foreign policy: "In every case it's retreat, retreat, retreat, surrender, surrender, retreat."....John Kerry on Trump administration: "There's no secret about how chaotic this is, and increasingly, there is no secret about how corrupt it is...Resign."....Ann Coulter on her support of Trump: "I'm a very stupid girl."............................................