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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.

  • February 10, 2016

    NY Daily News: "Dawn of the Brain Dead: Clown comes back to life with N.H. win as mindless zombies turn out in droves."....HuffPo on Trump: "A serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully."....The National Review on Trump: "A philosophically unmoored political opportunist."....Eva Schloss, stepsister to Anne Frank, on Trump: "Acting like another Hitler by inciting racism."....P.J. O'Rourke on Trump: "A bigger racist pig than George Wallace."....Former Bush aide Pete Wehner: "If Mr. Trump heads the Republican Party, it will no longer be a conservative party; it will be an angry, bigoted, populist one."....Sen. Ted Cruz: "The Donald Trump school of debate: If the facts are uncomfortable, simply yell and scream and stomp your feet."....Trump on Cruz: "A flat-out liar."....Cruz on Trump: "A fragile soul."....Sen. Lindsey Graham on GOP primaries: "It's like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you see the movie. You know how it ends."....
  • February 3, 2016

    Carly Fiorina on Hillary Clinton: "Qualified for the Big House, not the White House...She's escaped prosecution more than El Chapo."....Marco Rubio on Clinton: "One of her first acts as president may well be to pardon herself."....Chris Christie on Clinton: "She will never get within ten miles of the White House. The days for the Clintons in public housing are over."....Donald Trump on Glenn Beck: "A whack job."....Rubio on Ted Cruz: "Willing to say or do anything in order to win an election."....Trump on Cruz: "An anchor baby in Canada."....Rubio on Barack Obama: "Systematically and habitually violates the constitution."....Trump on NH Union-Leader publisher Joe McQuaid: "Truly a dishonest guy."....Sarah Palin on Iowa Rep. Steve King: "Maybe he's been hanging out in a cornfield too long huffing ethanol."....Fox News on Trump: "We can't give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees."....Trump on Fox: "Without me they'd have no ratings."....Daily Beast on Trump: "The Art of the Tantrum."....Ben Carson on the American people: "Terrified."....Rubio on Obama: "Seven disastrous years."....Former CIA director and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on the 2016 presidential contenders: "The level of dialogue on national security issues would embarrass a middle schooler."....Bill Maher: "Somewhere along the line the information superhighway became Bullshit Boulevard."....
  • January 25, 2016

    Donald Trump on Jeb Bush ad: "Desperately needed mommy to help him."....Bush press secretary Kristy Campbell on Trump: "Started the day aligning himself with white supremacists, ended it attacked a Former First Lady. Huge day..."....Trump on Bush: "He is ashamed to use the name 'Bush' in ads."....National Review on Trump: "A philosophically unmoored political opportunist."....Trump on NR: "A failing publication that has lost its way... Only knows how to criticize, but not how to lead."....former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Trump: "Primal screaming may be good for therapy, but it is a poor substitute for practical politics."....Elliot Abrams on Trump: "What's troubling is that he doesn't know that he doesn't know anything about national security."....Mark Helprin on Trump: "He is whatever he pleases to be at the moment, the only principle being the triumph of his will."....William Kristol: "Isn't Trumpism a two-bit Caesarism of a kind that American conservatives have always disdained?"....John Podhoretz on Trump as president: "Would be, unquestionably, the worst thing to happen to the American common culture in my lifetime."....Cal Thomas: "Isn't a narcissist what we currently have in the White House?"....Matt Walsh: "The melding of Trumpianity with Christianity has been among the more awkward and grotesque phenomenons I've ever witnessed...I watch it unfold feeling like a guy whose best friend just started dating the town floozy."....
  • January 21, 2016

    Bob Dole on Ted Cruz: "I don't know how he's going to deal with Congress. Nobody likes him."....Trump on Cruz: "He's a nasty guy...Nobody in Congress likes him."....NY Daily News headline on Palin endorsing Trump: "I'm With Stupid!"....Trump on Cruz: "A maniac."....William Saletan on Cruz: "May be the most spectacular liar ever to run for president."....NY Rep. Pete King on Cruz: "Go back under a rock."....Cruz on Trump: "In terms of a commander in chief, I think we ought to have someone who isn't springing out of bed and tweeting in response to the latest polls."....Trump on Cruz: "Two-faced."....Cruz on NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio: "Over and over again stands with the looters and criminals rather than the brave men and women of blue."....Trump on Obama: "Living in a fantasy land."....Marco Rubio on Obama: "Has deliberately weakened America."....Ted Nugent on Obama and Clinton: "They should be tried for treason and hung."....Matt Walsh on Trump: "If you vote for a man who worships himself over God, you deserve the tyranny that happens next."....Seth Meyers: "A good day for Obama only lasts the seven minutes before Repubicans s*** all over it."....Andy Borowitz: "I worry that the controversy about Ted Cruz's birth will distract people from the fact that he is a deranged sociopath."....
  • January 15, 2016

    Ted Cruz: "China is running over President Obama like he is a child."....Chris Christie on Obama: "The guy is a petulant child."....Marco Rubio on Obama: "Does not believe that America is a great global power...Doesn't believe in the Constitution."....Cruz on Obama: "Acts as an apologist for radical Islamic terrorism."....Ben Carson on Obama: "Doesn't realize we live in the twenty-first century."....Christie on Obama: "We will kick your rear end out of the White House."....Donald Trump: "Our country's a mess...Our military is a disaster."....Jeb Bush: "In this administration every weapon system has been gutted."....Christie on Obama: "Has let [our military] diminish to a point where tin pot dictators like the mullahs in Iran are taking our Navy ships."....Trump on the U.S.: "We can't be the stupid country any more. We are laughed at all over the world."....Rubio on Bush: "Desperate and spending millions on false attacks."....Trump on Rubio: "At least half of the things Marco said are flat-out false."....Rubio on Obamacare: "A certified job-killer."....Christie on Rubio: "When you're a senator, what you get to do is just talk and talk and talk."....Bush on Hillary Clinton: "She would be a national security mess."....Christie on Clinton: "If I am the nominee, she won't get within ten miles of the White House."....Trump on Bush: "We don't need a weak person being president of the United States."....Christie on Obama: "A guy who just believes that law enforcement are the bad guys."....