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 24, 2016

    Trump on Clinton: "The least qualified candidate in the history of this country."....Clinton on Trump: "The most dangerous person to run for president in the modern history of America."....Trump on the election: "The whole thing is one big fix. One big, ugly lie."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren to Trump: "We see through your creepy bullying...Whining about imaginary cheating is the last refuge of the sore loser."....Trump on the New York Times: "Poisoned the minds of the voters."....Bill Kristol on Trump: "A failed fluke presidential candidate...Really a bad guy."....Trump on the U.S.: "Looking so dumb."....John Avlon on Trump: "A celebrity demagogue whose narcissism has already stained our political history."....Trump on Clinton: "Such a nasty woman."....Diane Rehm on Trump: "Nasty, nasty talk."....Trump on recent accusations of sexual assault: "All fiction, all fictionalized, probably or possibly started by [Hillary Clinton] and her very sleazy campaign."....J.K. Rowling on debate: "A highly intelligent, experienced woman just debated a giant orange Twitter egg."....Trump: "We are competing in a rigged election."....Sen. Lindsay Graham on Trump: "If he loses it will not be because the system is rigged, but because he failed as a candidate."....Trump on Clinton: "Putin has outsmarted her at every single step of the way."....Clinton on Trump: "He would rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us."....Trump on the U.S.: "Nobody can believe how stupid our leadership is."....NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio on Trump election outcome comments: "Something you'd expect from a military leader about to attempt a coup in a foreign country."....Trump on a woman who accused him of sexual assault: "Look at her -- I don't think so."....Trump on another accuser: "Believe me, she would not be my first choice."....Amy Zimmerman on Trump: "The only thing women like more than being grabbed by the pussy is being told that they're too unattractive to be sexually violated."....Amy Davidson on Trump: "Seems incapable of talking about women without lying."....Clinton on Trump: "Thinks belittling women makes him bigger."....Jennifer Rubin on Trump: "Treating women as chattel makes him feel masculine and in command."....Chelsea Handler: "The only person with more respect for women than Donald Trump is Bill Cosby."....Trump on Clinton: "She gave us ISIS."....Trump on Clinton: "She's lied hundreds of times to the people, to Congress, and to the FBI."....Clinton on Trump: "He's unfit."....Trump on Clinton: "No, you're the one who's unfit."....Charles M. Blow: "Republicans sowed intolerance and in its shadow, Trump sprang up like toxic fungi."....Latina Magazine: "Send Trump to the 'Dustbin of History.'"....Trump on the U.S.: "Stagnant...We've lost our jobs...Not making things anymore...Being ripped off by everybody in the world."....Trump on voting: "It looks to me like a rigged election."....Obama on Trump: "You start whining before the game's even over?...You don't have what it takes to be in this job."....Trump on Clinton: "She should never have been allowed to run for the presidency...She's guilty of a very serious crime."....Bruce Springsteen on Trump: "He's such a flagrant, toxic narcissist that he wants to take down the entire democratic system with him if he goes...I think he's going to make as big a mess as he can."....Trump on Clinton: "Meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty."....Simon Schama on Trump remarks: "Straight from the anti-Semitic canon. Sieg Trump."....Clinton on Trump: "A very dark and in many ways dangerous vision of our country."....Trump on Clinton Foundation: "A criminal enterprise."....John Oliver on Trump: "The human embodiment of every backwards condescending Mad Men-esque boys club attitude that has ever existed, rolled into one giant salivating dick-size-referencing, pussy-grabbing warthog in a red power tie."....
  • October 16, 2016

    Trump ad on Clinton: "Filthy rich...Only cares about power, money, and herself."....Newt Gingrich: "There's a big Trump and a little Trump. The little Trump is frankly pathetic."....Trump on McCain: "The dirtiest mouth in all of the Senate."....Trump on USA Today: "Not much of a newspaper."....Trump on SNL: "Boring and unfunny."....Trump on HRC: "We should take a drug test prior to the debate, because I don't know what's going on with her."....Obama on Trump: "Pumps himself up by putting other people down."....Trump on McCain, Ryan and other GOP leaders: "I wouldn't want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people."....New York Daily News on Trump: "Perv."....Erin Gloria Ryan: "There's one thing about which the GOP presidential nominee always tells the truth: treating women like garbage."....Democratic strategist Maria Cardona on Trump: "An irredeemable pervert, a predator."....Trump on Ryan: "Weak and ineffective."....Roger Cohen on Trump: "A single-note campaign; that note is rage."....GOP donor Mark DeMoss on 2016: "The most shallow, petty, immature presidential race of my lifetime. I'm 54."....David Brooks on Trump: "His party treats him as a stench it can't yet remove."....Tom Hanks on Trump: "[He will become president] right about the time spaceships come down filled with dinosaurs in red capes."....
  • October 11, 2016

    Donald Trump on U.S. electoral system: "The election is going to be rigged...The only way we can lose...is if cheating goes on."....Eighteen-year Trump exec Barbara Res on Trump: "He got too famous. He started believing his own s***...Now I don't think there is a person alive that he respects, because he thinks he's God."....Trump on Clinton: "The devil."....George Will on the GOP: "Perhaps it is imprudent to nominate a venomous charlatan."....Roger Cohen on Trump: "A dictator-in-waiting with a brat's temper and a prig's scowl...Hovering over Hillary Clinton like some dyspeptic Mafia boss."....Trump on Clinton: "Help me stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election."....Seth Meyers on Trump: "The pervert on the bus."....Lindy West: "Mr. Trump is rape culture's blathering id."....Michael Tomasky on Trump in debate:"Pacing like a walrus."....Cyndi Lauper on Trump: "He's a bum and he's taking us down...He has low-lifed our entire political system."....Robert De Niro on Trump: "So blatantly stupid. He's a punk, he's a dog, he's a pig, he's a con, a bullshit artist."....The Atlantic editorial on Trump: "A demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar. He is spectacularly unfit for office."....
  • October 7, 2016

    Sen. Harry Reid on Trump: "He raped and pillaged Atlantic City."....David Letterman on Trump: "A damaged human being...A person to be shunned."....Trump on Clinton: "She could be crazy. She could actually be crazy."....Adam Haslett on Trump: "A would-be tyrant...His mind is itself a political mob."....Frank Bruni on Rudy Giuliani: "His expression - part sneer, part glare, all menace - turns small forest creatures to stone."....Trump on CNN VP debate panel: "A joke, biased and very dumb."....Rush Limbaugh on Sen. Tim Kaine: "If [Clinton's] strategy was to find a jerk to make her appear likable by comparison, she damn near pulled it off."....Trump adviser Roger Stone on Kaine: "An obnoxious asshole."....Trump on Kaine in VP debate: "Looks like an evil crook out of the Batman movies."....Liz Smith on Trump in the eighties: "He was a horse's ass. Still is."....Bill Maher on Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson: "He's not making pot look good."....
  • September 28, 2016

    Rush Limbaugh on Hillary Clinton in debate: "She came off exactly as many people see her: A witch with a capital B."....unnamed Congressman to Frank Luntz, on Clinton in debate: "She just comes across as my bitchy wife/mother."....Christina Cauterrucci on debate: "Looked and sounded like a tiff between a petulant, sociopathic toddler and the world's most patient, cool-headed teacher."....Sarah Silverman: "If you're a man and you keep saying you 'don't trust Hillary,' call your mom. Work that s*** out."....David Frum on Clinton: "Who told Hillary to keep smiling like she's at her granddaughter's birthday party?"....Clinton on Trump: "Dangerously incoherent."....former Bush spokesman for the UN, Richard Grenell: "Hillary's condescending smile is not likeable."....Transparent creator Jill Soloway on Trump: "A complete dangerous monster...An inheritor to Hitler."....Brit Hume on Clinton: "She looked composed -- smug sometimes -- not necessarily attractive."....Rudy Giuliani on Lester Holt: "An enormously ignorant, completely misinformed fact checker."....Arsenio Hall on Trump: "We can't elect a man who is obsessed with hate for Rosie O'Donnell. You never hear Putin bring up Yakov Smirnoff."....Howard Fineman on Trump in debate: "A symphony of incoherence."....Newt Gingrich on Clinton in debate: "Vicious, nasty, mean-spirited, and arrogant...The media elite were thrilled that Hillary could be so mean and nasty."....Arizona Republic on Trump: "A stunning lack of human decency...He hangs scapegoats like piñatas and invites people to take a swing."....NYT on Trump's personality: "Bluster, savage mockery of those who challenge him, degrading comments about women, mendacity, crude generalizations about nations and religions."....Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Trump: "Paranoid, nativist rhetoric."....Jerry Springer: "Hillary Clinton belongs in the White House. Donald Trump belongs on my show."....Judge Jeanine on Clinton: "Cannot handle the truth. She can't handle a direct question."....Bono on Trump: "Potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America."....Trump on Clinton: "Hillary has experience, but it's bad experience...It's bad, bad experience."....Bill Maher to Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway: "You are enabling pure evil."....Green Party candidate Jill Stein on Trump: "The guy has a lot of problems -- physical, mental, emotional, cognitive...He's incapable of having a consistent thought or policy."....Nicholas Kristof on Trump: "I've never met a national politician as ill-informed, as deceptive, as evasive and as vacuous as Trump. He's not normal."....Bill Clinton on Trump: "Most of [Hillary's] strongest supporters have either worked for her or done business with him."....Colin Kaepernick on Trump and Clinton: "Both are proven liars...You have to pick the lesser of two evils. But in the end, it's still evil."....Stephen Colbert on Trump at debate: "Sounded like he was fighting off a cold with cocaine."....John Oliver on Trump: "America's wealthiest hemorrhoid."....Trump on the U.S.: "Being ripped off by every single country in the world...We lose on everything...Our airports are like a Third World country...We're a mess."....Garry Trudeau on Trump in 1987: "My first impression? Biggest. Asshole. Ever. Must draw."....