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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 12, 2024

    Trump: "Biden didn't do anything for Taylor, and never will."....HRC on Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin: "He's like a puppy dog."....Julia Ioffe on Carlson: "Doing the Kremlin's job of misinforming, disinforming the American population."....CNN'S Chris Wallace: "Calling Tucker Carlson a 'useful idiot' is unfair to useful idiots."....Bill Maher on Kanye West: "A very charming antisemite."....Michelle Cottle on Trump: "When he sours on you, even slightly, the best you can hope for is to be casually tossed aside, covered in his slime, with your integrity shredded beyond repair."....George Santos: "Ann Coulter is a sour puss and her body will be discovered by her agonizing cats screaming for help the day she dies alone in her Manhattan apartment because nobody can stand her bitterness."....John Bolton on Trump and dictators: "Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and others -- they think he's a laughing fool. And they're prepared to take advantage of him."....Rep. Mike Collins on undocumented migrant accused of assaulting NYPD officer, then flipping off reporters: "We could buy him a ticket on Pinochet Air for a free helicopter ride back."....Trump to lawyer Roberta Kaplan at the end of his deposition at Mar-a-Lago: "See you next Tuesday.".....MSNBC's Katie Phang on Trump: "His ego is writing checks his wallet can't cash."....Sen. Ted Cruz: "You wouldn't let Joe Biden handle the remote control on your television, and he's got the nuclear codes."....Gov. Chris Sununu on Trump: "If he is off the teleprompter he can barely keep a cogent thought. That's just fact."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "Any Republican that isn't willing to adapt to [Trump's] policies, we are completely eradicating from the party."....Maureen Dowd: "We can't have a president who encourages violence, vomits misinformation, campaigns by humiliation and smears and, lately, portrays himself as divine."....Mary L. Trump: "How is there even one voter willing to  pull a lever for a twice-impeached insurrectionist and rapist who is currently facing 91 indictments?"....Stephen Colbert: "It's not whether you win or lose, but how hard you laugh at Mike Johnson."....

  • January 22, 2024

    Nikki Haley: "Every one of Donald Trump's commercials is a lie. Shocker, right?"....Trump in Iowa: "These caucuses are your personal chance to score the ultimate victory over all of the liars, cheaters, thugs, perverts, frauds, crooks, freaks, creeps, and other quite nice people...Tomorrow is your time to turn on them."....Sen. Ted Cruz: "January 6 is the radical left's excuse to persecute the political opponents of Joe Biden."....retiring Sen. Dan Coats on Cruz: "He's the most self-centered, narcissistic, pathological liar I have ever seen. And you can quote me on that."....Mark Jacob on Sen. Mitch McConnell voting Trump "not guilty" of insurrection at J6 impeachment: "Trump is a threat to our democracy now because McConnell betrayed our democracy then."....Sean Hannity on CNN's DC anchor: "Jake Tapper is not a journalist. He's a political hack. He's a Democratic operative. He's living a lie."....Trump on NBC and CNN: "They are crooked. They're dishonest, and frankly they should have their licenses -- or whatever they have, take it away!"....radio host Mark. R. Levin: "The media class in America has a great deal in common with the state-run media in Iran, China, Russia, and all of the other genocidal regimes."....former WH attorney Ty Cobb on Trump: "I think the lack of accountability which he desires, which Putin has, which the Ayatollah has, which Xi has...he may want an America like that."....MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Trump: "He's running for a situation in which he is The Leader, there is no government, there isn't a policy process, because there's just what he feels like on a day."....Sean Hannity on Maddow: "Part-time make-believe journalist and full-time left-wing hate-Trump conspiracy theorist."....Jonah Goldberg: "Sen. Lindsey Graham alone has inserted his head into his own ass and then pulled it out of his mouth like a lantern more times than I can count."....Trump on Biden: "The worst president that we've had in the history of our country. He's destroying our country."....Eric Trump on Biden: "Arguably the most incompetent president in the history of our nation."....Trump: "Joe Biden has destroyed America."....Trump in New Hampshire: "We need a big, big win against these terrible people."....Gov. Chris Sununu on Trump: "I'm so tired of losing with this guy."....Trump on Sununu: "Chris Christie without the weight...Just spews out false fact after false fact."....Trump to climate protesters interrupting Iowa rally: "Go home to mommy. Your mommy is waiting."....Trump making up Biden anecdote: "Crooked Joe is staging his pathetic fear-mongering campaign event in Pennsylania today. Did you see him? He was stuttering through the whole thing...'He's a threat to...duh...duh...duhmocracy.' He couldn't read the words."....Mary Trump on her uncle: "If he can in any way profit from your death, he will facilitate it and then ignore the fact that you died."....Ron Filipkowski on Trump: "Is physically and mentally unraveling before our eyes. He slurs his speech more, he sweats more..."....Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg on Trump's behavior: "I would liken him to the Titanic, but at least the Titanic had a band."....Elon Musk on John Oliver: "Weak sauce."....

  • January 8, 2024

    ....Trump on special counsel Jack Smith: "The personification of evil."....on Rep. Debbie Dingell: "Loser."....on Jan. 6 Committee: "Political Thugs and Misfits."....on former House Speaker: "Crazy Nancy Pelosi."....on Nikki Haley: "Birdbrain...She's a globalist. She loves the globe."....on Liz Cheney: "American Disaster...Suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome."....Matt Taibbi on Trump: "Listening to this stuff is like watching a Pope open the Vatican door with his balls hanging out."....former Rep. Adam Kinzinger: "I'm genuinely surprised how people close to Trump haven't talked about the odor. It's truly something to behold...Take armpits, ketchup, a butt, and makeup and put that all in a blender and bottle that as a cologne."....Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheun on Kinzinger: "Disrespects everyone around him because he is a sad individual who is mad about how his miserable life has turned out."....Meghan McCain: "Trump is a piece-of-shit, election-denying huckster whose own wife won't campaign with him."....

  • December 23, 2023

    ....Michelle Wolf: "No matter how you feel about Henry Kissinger you gotta agree that he's one of America's greatest war criminals. The question is, is he America's GREATEST war criminal?"....Anthony Bourdain: "Once you've been to Cambodia, you'll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands."....Trump on immigrants: "They're poisoning the blood of our country, that's what they've done."....Sen. Tommy Tuberville: "We're being overrun. They're taking us over."....Trump on NH Gov. Chris Sununu: "A spoiled brat."....Chris Christie on Vivek Ramaswamy: "The most obnoxious blowhard in America."....Rudy Giuliani on Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss: "I told the truth. They were engaged in changing votes."....Biden spokesperson Ammar Moussa on Trump: "Parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy."....Chris Christie on Trump: "He is a danger to this country. He is unfit to be President and is here only to serve himself, not you."....Trump on the judge in his fraud case: "Ignorant."....David Frum on Trump's rivals: "They're too scared to fight and therefore they're too weak to win."....former House Speaker and Fox Corp. board member Paul Ryan: "Trump's not a conservative. He's an authoritarian narcissist."....Trump on the US: "Our country is in hell. Laughed at all over the world....Our elections are totally rigged."....billionaire donor Leon Cooperman on Trump: "A disgusting human being...His personal life is a mess and I would never vote for him under any circumstance."....Trump on Sen. Mitch McConnell: "A real jerk, a real fool, like, a stupid fool."....former WH staffer Kal Pen on Trump: "If the Constitution allows a president to overturn the Constitution, then what was the point of the Constitution? The whole thing might as well end with 'or do whatever, man, I don't give a f***.'"....Trump on Democrats: "They are going after Christians in America."....Maureen Dowd: "Conservative judges who assured the Senate that Roe was settled law in their confirmation hearings could barely wait until Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died to throw it in the constitutional rubbish bin."....Rick Wilson on Trump: "Remember, America, Trump wants you to be afraid of him...because he's petrified you'll see him for precisely the coward he is."....Elon Musk to advertisers abandoning X: "Go f*** yourself. Go. F***. Yourself."....Cher on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Can go you-know-what themselves. I wouldn't be in it now if they gave me a million dollars."....Matt Taibbi on the US: "What a crazy effing country this is."....

  • December 11, 2023

    ....James Carville: "How the hell am I still looking at Netanyahu's stupid, crooked, ignorant, negligent face? This guy's still in power after the greatest intelligence failure at least since 9/11?"....Maureen Dowd on Trump: "Why should I have to make the case that a man who tried to overthrow the government should not be president again?"....Mary Trump on her uncle: "I know for a fact that he's scared out of his mind about being imprisoned. He is actively seeking loyalists NOW who have the power to give him a get-out-of-jail-free card."....Chris Christie on Trump: "He is an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president, because he wants to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him."....Vivek Ramaswamy on Christie: "Do everybody a favor, just walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell out of this place!"....various Fox News hosts on Ramaswamy: "Court jester...Embarrassing...A jerk."....Steve Bannon on Fox News: "TV for stupid people."....Sen. John Fetterman on a Biden impeachment: "It would just be like a big circle jerk on the fringe right."....Sean Hannity on the US: "Hate is running rampant all across the country."....Gretchen Carlson on Hannity: "An arsonist Arsonist: 'Sure are a lot of fires these days.'"....Trump on Liz Cheney book: "Boring."....Trump on Liz Cheney: "Suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome at a level rarely seen before."....Trump on Robert De Niro: "Has become a total loser, as the World watches, waits, and laughs."....Trump: "John Kerry has to be stopped. He's destroying America."....Mary Trump on Joe Rogan: "Has the IQ of a turnip."....Canadian comic Sophie Buddle: "I moved to America this year. I wanted to see it before it ends."....