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.
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July 11, 2016
Gretchen Carlson on Roger Ailes: "The Bill Cosby of media."....Newt Gingrich on Hillary Clinton: "Has total guilt."....Donald Trump on America: "We have a dishonest press. I love talking about how dishonest they are."....Trump on America: "We've become so politically correct that we're totally impotent."....Trump on America: "We have a crooked system. We have a rigged system."....Trump on reporters: "Bad people."....Trump on CNN: "Dishonest as hell."....Trump on Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "She's the worst."....Trump on Chuck Todd: "This really stupid guy."....Trump: "There's nothing as dishonest as the media, that I can tell you."....Nick Gillespie on Trump: "Lurches from embarrassment to embarrassment like a drunk stumbling through a restaurant knocking over every table in his path to the bathroom.".... -
June 29, 2016
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Donald Trump: "A small, insecure, money-grubber who fights for no one but himself...A nasty man who will never become president of the United States."....Trump on Warren: "A total fraud...I think she's a racist."....Clinton foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan on Trump: "The American people need a steady hand at times of uncertainty, not a reckless egomaniac."....Trump on George Will: "One of the most overrated pundits...Lost his way long ago."....Will on Trump: "Can say everything he knows about any subject in 140 characters."....Trump on Clinton: "Her judgment has killed thousands, unleashed ISIS, and wrecked the economy."....Mark Cuban on Trump: "It's rare that you see someone get stupider before your eyes, but he's really working at it...You look at him and say, 'What the hell are you talking about?'"....Trump on Clinton: "May be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency."....Arianna Huffington on Trump: "The most dangerous and unstable nominee in modern history."....Trump on Clinton: "Defrauded America as Secretary of State...Has perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft. She gets rich making you poor."....Clinton on Trump: "The Clinton Foundation helps poor people around the world get access to life-saving AIDS medicine...Donald Trump uses poor people around the world to produce his line of suits and ties."....Trump on Clinton: "Corrupt, dangerous, dishonest."....Samantha Bee on Boris Johnson: "Trump with his hair on backwards.".... -
June 21, 2016
GOP consultant Rick Wilson on Trump: "Cheeto Jesus."....Jonathan Chait on Trump campaign: "A garbage fire."....FL Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Lewis on Orlando: "The entire city should be leveled. It is void of a single redeeming quality. It is a melting pot of Third World miscreants and ghetto thugs."....Sarah Palin on President Obama: "A special kind of stupid."....Scott Baio on Obama: "He's a Muslim or he's a Muslim sympathizer."....Former U.S. District Court judge Stephen Larson on Trump: "Racist...Foolish...Embarrassing."....Former NY Court of Appeals associate judge Robert Smith on Trump: "He's a totally irresponsible egomaniac, and it should be no surprise he pays no attention to the law and other basic social norms."....University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein: "If you open up the libel laws, the first person who would be sued is Donald Trump...I regard him as semi-hysterical and self-righteous [and] utterly unfit to be president of the United States."....Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Trump: "Every day there's another piece of evidence that exposes this small, insecure money-grubber...Exactly what you would expect from a thin-skinned racist bully."....GOP consultant Rick Wilson on Republican Party and Trump: "He's insane. He's doomed...A vile stain on the Republic...You're covered in his stench...Your resumes will always read 'Worked for crazy crypto-fascist who destroyed the GOP.'"....Historian Patricia Limerick on Trump: "The standard bearer for the currently booming Jerk Pride Movement."....Seth Meyers: "I wouldn't want to put myself in Donald Trump's head, mostly for lack of synonyms.".... -
June 11, 2016
Elizabeth Warren on Donald Trump: "A loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one but himself."....Trump on Warren: "A big mouth...One of the least effective Senators in the entire U.S. Senate."....Deepak Chopra on Trump: "He pouts, he's belligerent, he's emotionally retarded...Maybe mentally retarded too."....Jack Schafer on Trump: "The emotional equivalent of a toddler."....Trump on biographer Harry Hurt III: "A dummy dope...Failed writer."....Erick Erickson on GOP: "The party of Lincoln intends to circle the wagons around a racist."....Former DNC communications director Mo Elleithee: "Donald Trump is his own worst nightmare, and [Democrats] should not get in the way of him screwing himself up."....Trump on reporters: "Scum...Slime...Losers.".... -
June 3, 2016
Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Pope Francis: "A son of a whore."....Trump on Bill Kristol: "A loser."....Kristol on Trump: "A roaring jackass."....Rick Perry on Hillary Clinton: "Donald Trump will peel her skin off in a debate setting."....Trump on Clinton: "Has to go to jail."....Trump on George will: "A nasty guy...A major loser."....Clinton on Trump: "It's not hard to imagine him leading us into a war just because someone got under his very thin skin."....Trump on Clinton: "Reading poorly from the teleprompter! She doesn't even look presidential!"....Clinton on Trump: "I will leave it to the psychiatrists to explain his affection for tyrants."....Trump on ABC News reporter Tom Llamas: "A sleaze."....Brad Thor on Trump: "A boorish orange raccoon...A potential tyrant...Will demonize anybody that stands in his way."....Clinton on Trump: "A fraud. He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U."....David Plouffe on Trump: "Ignorance and lack of virtue."....Stephen Hawking on Trump: "A demagogue."....Ben Fountain on Trump: "The bog monster of the American id."....