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.

  • July 18, 2017

    Steve Bannon on House Speaker Paul Ryan: "A limp-dick motherf***er who was born in a Petri dish at the Heritage Foundation."....WSJ on Trump: "Believes his outsize personality and social-media following make him larger than the presidency. He's wrong."....Ross Douthat on Trump: "Everyone who gives him the benefit of the doubt eventually regrets it."....Joe Scarborough on GOP: "How much of this country and our values are they willing to sell out?"....Michael Gerson on Trump: "If you make losing a sin you make cheating a sacrament."....Carl P. Leubsdorf on Trump: "Hired foxes to watch the chicken coops."....Erin Gloria Ryan on Trump: "In the business of putting his name on things he did not make."....Mark Shields on WH denials of Russia story: "They stand naked and they stand exposed as shams."....Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin: "The president's maliciousness is only outdone by his incompetence."....Charles Blow on Trump: "It's as if he puts the language through a meat grinder."....Al Gore on Trump: "I thought there was a chance he would come to his senses. But I was wrong."....Ann Coulter on Delta Airlines: "Fascist."....
  • July 11, 2017

    Sean Hannity on collusion coverage: "Media psychosis."....Tucker Carlson on collusion coverage: "Hysteria."....Donald Trump, Jr. on collusion allegations: "Disgusting...So phony."....Trump deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka on Trump Jr. Russia email story: "A massive nothing burger."....Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti on Trump Jr. comments re Russia emails: "He's stupid for saying what he did."....NY Post editorial board: "Donald Trump Jr. is an idiot."....Senior White House official on Trump Jr.: "An idiot."....Defense attorney Brian Wice on Trump Jr.: "Didn't they teach this kid anything about optics?"....Australian journalist Chris Uhlmann on Trump at G20: "Isolated and friendless...No desire and no capacity to lead the world...Pressed fast-forward on the decline of the United States."....WH director of social media Dan Scavino: "Dumb as a rock Mika and lover Jealous Joe are lost, confused and saddened since POTUS stopped returning their calls. Unhinged!"....Sen. John McCain on his developing sense of Trump: "First shock, then surprise, then Whiskey Tango Foxtrot."....Mark Leibovich on Washington, D.C.: "The swamp feels anything but drained; more like remodeled into a gold-plated hot tub."....Gov. Chris Christie: "I'm enormously relieved that we don't have a criminal in the White House like Hillary Clinton."....NBCUniversal News Group VP Mark Kornblau: "Never imagined a day when I would think to myself, 'It is beneath my dignity to respond to the President of the United States.'"....NY Post critic Kyle Smith: "Don Jr. is why Nigerian e-mail scammers keep trying their luck."....
  • July 5, 2017

    Trump on Mika Brzezinski: "Dumb as a rock."…. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Trump tweets: "Stop it! The presidential platform should be used for more than bringing people down."….Brzezinski on Trump: "A fragile, childlike ego."….Arwa Mahdawi on Trump tweets: "Increasingly outlandish brain farts…It is the hobgoblin of the littlest mind to live-tweet your response to a television show."….Rep. Jamie Raskin on Trump: "A barbarian…Something is deeply wrong at the White House."….Donny Deutsch on Trump: "A vulgar pig."….Maureen Dowd: "Trump's fatal flaw is that he cannot drag himself away from the mirror."….Trump on New York Times: "A fake news joke."….Joe Scarborough to Trump: "Why do you keep lying about things that are so easily disproven? What is wrong with you?"….Stephen Colbert: "Let's stop pretending that Trump is a symptom of something. He is the disease. And the only cure is three-and-a-half years of liquor and bed rest."….
  • June 24, 2017

    Trump on Justice Department investigation into Russian election meddling: "The single greatest witch hunt in American political history."....Tim Wise on Trump: "A walking, talking opioid...Comes along and says...'I can take away your pain.'"....Newt Gingrich on James Comey: "Part of the sickness."....Michael Tomasky on Gingrich: "A vending machine of hate and hypocrisy."....Trump on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: "Some very bad and conflicted people."....Roland Hedley: "Ross Perot's 'giant sucking sound' (of jobs going to Mexico) nothing compared to POTUS's first Cabinet meeting."....David Axelrod on Trump Cabinet meeting: "They all looked so servile...It felt very North Korean."....Trump on the actions of his Justice Department: "Phony...Sad."....Chelsea Handler: "Ivanka was supposed to be our Wonder Woman, but now we're just wondering where the f*** that woman is."....Alex Jones on mainstream media: "Tyrants."....Erin Gloria Ryan on Ivanka Trump softball interviews: "Treated like she's a precocious middle schooler on a permanent Take Your Daughter To Work Day."....Tomi Lahren on LA Resist march: "A crock of crap...A crybaby fest of bulls***."....Sen. Brian Schatz on Senate health bill: "No hearings, no women, no Democrats involved. No expert testimony, no listening to healthcare providers. This is legislative malpractice."....Nick Schager on 'Transformers: The Last Knight': "Two-and-a-half hours of racist robot torture."....
  • June 12, 2017

    Eric Trump on those who oppose his father: "To me, they're not even people. It's so, so sad."....Donald Trump Jr. on London Mayor Sadiq Khan: "Maybe he should do something about [terrorism]. Maybe he should do something to fix the problem rather than just sit there and pretend there isn't one."....Trump on Comey: "Very cowardly."....Gail Collins on Trump: "Wanders around in an ego-filled cloud, saying whatever the heck pops into his head...Has a minimal ongoing relationship with reality, let alone truth."....Corey Lewandowski on Comey: "He gave his notes to a Columbia law professor because he wasn't man enough to give the notes directly to the media."....former Kasich campaign manager John Weaver: "Trump is like a parasite that invaded the body politic."....Simon Malloy: "It's Comey's word against Trump's, and Trump's word is beyond worthless."....Mike Huckabee on executive branch: "Has emasculated itself by surrendering constantly to the idea that once the court says something, that's it."....Charles B. Pierce on Trump: "He doesn't know how to be president and he doesn't care to learn. The pivot is never coming."....Sen. Kristen Gillibrand on Trump: "Has he kept his promises? No. F*** no."....Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Trump: "I'm concerned about his fitness for office."....Keith Obermann: "Donald Trump is not of sound mind...The meaninglessness. The lack of focus, the carelessness, the self-pity, the irresponsible redefinition of the language itself..."....Trump on Comey: "False statements and lies."....Jesse Berney on Trump: "He's a toddler, but with less empathy and self-control."....Rep. Maxine Waters on Trump: "How much more reckless can he be with the power that he wields? More importantly, how long will so-called 'patriotic' Republicans participate in this charade and moral race to the bottom?"....Sean Hannity on media: "Journalism is dead and buried."....Rush Limbaugh: "The anti-Trump voting public is insane...[The media and the Democrats] have been lying to them and stoking them and fueling them up ever since the war in Iraq. They've been systematically turning people into unhinged hysterical lunatics."....Fox News' Neil Cavuto: "Mr. President, it is not the fake new media that's your problem. It's you."....Eric Trump on DNC head Tom Perez: "A total whack job."....former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder on Trump: "Has demonstrated that he doesn't understand or doesn't care how America has engaged the world for the last 70 years."....Naomi Klein on Trump: "He is undoubtedly an idiot, but do not underestimate how good he is at that."....