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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.

  • November 27, 2023

    ....Trump: "Happy Thanksgiving to ALL, including the Racist & Incompetent Attorney General of New York State..."....Maureen Dowd on Trump: "The 77-year-old Mar-a-Lago Dracula has risen from his gilded coffin even though he's albatrossed with legal woes and seems more deranged than ever."....House Speaker Mike Johnson on Trump, in 2015: "He would break more things than he fixes. He is a hothead by nature and that is a dangerous trait to have in a Commander in Chief."....Chris Christie: "George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, they are rolling in their graves. If they knew that anyone would have the audacity as a felon, which Donald Trump will become this spring, to run for president?"....former Trump chief of staff Gen. John Kelly: "What's going on in this country that a single person thinks this guy would still be a good president when he's said the things he's said and done the things he's done?"....Carl Bernstein on Trump: "He is the first seditious president in the history of the United States unless you are going to count Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy."....Bob Woodward on Trump: "He's disconnected from democracy's basic premise. He doesn't like democracy because it's about other people, and he only cares about and focuses on himself."....David Rothkopf: "Biden's likely opponent has never won a popular vote, achieved nothing as preisdent, was impeached twice, has been indicted on 91 felony counts, is planning to destroy democracy and elevate our enemies, is a rapist, a racist, and criminally incompetent...Also, he's old, mentally unstable, fat, and as close to Satan as you will ever get in human form."....Trump on his enemies: "Today, especially in honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections...Our threat is from within."....Yale fascism expert Jason Stanley: "This doesn't echo 'Mein Kampf,' this is textbook 'Mein Kampf.'"....Trump: "I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family."....Maureen Dowd: "Trump's campaign slogan should be, 'There will be blood.'"....Sen. Mike Lee on questioning FBI Director Chris Wray: "I predict that, as always, his answers will be 97% information-free."....Mary Trump on Sen. Tommy Tuberville: "Very possibly the least-intelligent person ever to hold a Senate seat."....Ann Coulter: "Trump can barely speak English. He's a gigantic baby."....Charlie Sykes on Trump: "A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower."....Douglas Rushkoff on Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk: "These are not the demigods we're looking for."....

  • November 16, 2023

    ....Trump on Kim Kardashian: "The world's most overrated celebrity."....MSNBC host Joy Reid on Stephen Miller: "The white nationalist Dracula."....Hitler on Jews: "This vermin must be destroyed."....Mary Trump on her uncle: "Donald is a very sick man. He's never going to get better. He's only going to get worse. And if it suits his purpose he will take this entire country down with him."....Maryanne Trump Barry on her brother: "Donald is cruel."....Sen. Joe Manchin on Trump: "He will destroy democracy in America."....Nikki Haley on Trump: "Chaos follows him everywhere he goes."....Republican megadonor Peter Thiel on himself: "Voting for Trump was like a not very articulate scream for help."....Vivek Ramaswamy on Netanyehu: "A Nazi."....Vivek Ramaswamy on Ukraine: "It has celebrated a Nazi in its ranks -- the comedian in cargo pants, a man called Zelensky."....Charles Sykes on GOP debate: "The only real suspense was whether Nikki Haley would stuff Vivek in a locker or skewer him with one of her five-inch heels."....Rich Lowry: "Someone has to tell DeSantis that no smile is better than a fake smile."....Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "It's not a question between right versus left anymore. It's normal versus crazy, and President Biden and the left are doubling down on crazy."....Trump on NY AG Letitia James, tweeting while in courtroom with her: "She's a political hack."....Trump lawyer Alina Habba on her courtroom experience: "I was told to sit down today. I was yelled at, and I've had a judge who is unhinged slamming a table. Let me be very clear: I don't tolerate that in my life, I'm not going to tolerate it here."....former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on courtroom sketch of Trump: "A travesty."....Trump on Judge Engoron: "He called me a fraud and he didn't know anything about me...The fraud is on the court, not on me."....Mitt Romney on Trump: "I did not think he would be this bad."....Newsmax guest attorney Randy Zelin on Eric Trump criticism of trial: "If you're so sure that you're going to win, if you haven't done a damn thing wrong, then...stop taking a dump over the system."....Trump biographer Tim O'Brien on Eric Trump: "The worst witness you could ever have. Even among his siblings [he] was routinely derided as being incapable and a bit of a doofus."....Rep. MTG on Rep. Rashida Tlaib: "She's literally a terrorist in the House of Representatives."....Rep. MTG on Rep. Lauren Boebert: "Whore."....Dahlia Lithwick: "The cogs and the wheels of democratic governance sound janky as hell right now."....Andrew Sullivan on Trump: "Cultivates greed, gluttony, pride, lust, envy, sloth and anger more assiduously than Satan."....Charles Sykes on Trump: "A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower."....Jonah Goldberg on Trump: "He's like a Far Side dog who hears 'blah, blah, blah, blah, POWER, blah, blah, blah.'"....

  • October 31, 2023

    ....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "Joe Biden is Hitler. Nazi Joe has got to go."....Donald Trump Jr.: "If you vote for Democrats in 2024 you are literally voting to send your friends, maybe your conservative uncle, to the re-education camps, in time."....CNN's Jake Tapper on Rep. MTG's censure of Rep. Rashida Tlaib: "Written by someone who seems to have learned about the Arab-Israeli conflict 10 minutes before, who maybe didn't even have access to Wikipedia."....Bill Maher: "If ignorance is a disease, Harvard Yard is the Wuhan wet market."....Commentary's John Podhoretz: "Who is the editor of the Yale Daily News? Joseph Goebbels?"....Trump nicknaming NYT reporter: "Maggot Haberman of the failing New York Times."....Trump on Biden: "This incompetent FOOL is absolutely destroying America."....Trump on NYC: "Crime-ridden and dying."....Trump: "We will evict Crooked Joe Biden from the White House, and we will finish the job once and for all."....Trump on Judge Chutkan: "Her whole life is not liking me."....Trump: "This is a RIGGED TRIAL, right out of a Banana Republic, but sadly, it gives the Republicans the right to do the same when we assume office."....Trump: "Now that the 'strike' is over, the talentless, low-rated CREEPS of Late Night Television are back. I knew there was a reason I didn't want to see it settled -- True LOSERS!!!"....Trump: "Lowlifes impeached me twice."....Trump: "If you took the five worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up they would not have done near the destruction to our country as Crooked Joe Biden and the Biden Administration have done. We are a failing nation."....Charlie Sykes: "Henceforth, belief in the Big Lie -- and support for Trump's coup -- is THE litmus test for leadership in the GOP. If you don't have a coup on your resume, don't bother to apply."....Ann Coulter: "Obama was the most articulate president we've probably ever had. Trump has a vocabulary of 50 words."....Pastor's opening prayer at Iowa Trump rally: "We ask that those who stand against [Trump] be put to silence."....Republicans on Trump -- Priebus: "He's an idiot."....McMaster: "He's a dope."....Cohn: "He's dumb as sh*t."....Kelly: "He's unhinged and an idiot."....Mattis: "He's a fifth grader."....Bill Barr: "Shockingly detached from reality."....Roger Stone: "America's greatest mistake."....Bannon: "An 11-year-old child."....Tillerson: "F**king moron."....Mark Hamill: "People complaining about my anti-Trump tweets need to understand: I love my country and I feel it's my duty to oppose this demented sociopath with every fiber of my being."....Mitt Romney on Trump: "He's not smart. I mean, really not smart."....Ron Filipkowskis on Trump: "Continues to circle the drain in a subtance-fueled, impaired descent into dementia."....Rep. Nancy Pelosi on GOP: "A cult to, really, effectively, a thug."....Garrison Keillor on Trump: "A politician whom some people look on as a male Mona Lisa and other people see as a sculpture fashioned from giraffe turds: either way, he's one of a kind."....Donald Trump Jr.: "Our mainstream media, the people in DC...want to throw Trump in jail for a thousand years and/or the death penalty."....Steve Schmidt on Pence: "He served a cruel cause with a cold heart."....Rep. Mike Johnson: "Twitter was basically an FBI subsidiary before Elon Musk took it over."....Dan Bongino on former followers: "Relieved to see so many terror-simp dipshits exiting stage left off my account, and back into their momma's basements, while howling about a fake 'occupation' they heard about from a random anon on TikTok."....John Dean during 1973 Watergate hearings: "How in God's name could so many lawyers get involved in something like this?"....

  • October 7, 2023

    ....Gov. Nikki Haley to Vivek Ramaswamy: "Honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber."....Mary L. Trump on her uncle: "An incompetent fascist who's itching to become an autocrat with the power to wreak vengeance upon his enemies."....Glenn Kirschner: "Donald Trump may be trying to set the record as the defendant who made the greatest number of incriminating statements in the history of American defendants."....former WH aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Trump: "We're talking about a man who at the very essence of his being almost destroyed democracy in one day and he wants to do it again."....Rob Reiner: "If Kevin McCarthy and all the Republicans who know better had one millionth the courage of Cassidy Hutchinson, our democracy wouldn't be hanging by a thread."....Newt Gingrich on the ousting of Kevin McCarthy: "Astonishing destructive behavior by a handful of egocentric people who think they're superior to 96% of the Congress."....Rep. Adam Schiff quoting The Big Lebowski: "Gaetz isn't wrong, he's just an asshole."....Stephen Colbert: "The douche abides."....Rep. Matt Lawler on Gaetz: "A petulant child...He cares about getting attention."....Rep. Garret Graves on Gaetz: "Matt would be a great dictator in a small island nation in the Pacific...That's probably the best next step for him."....former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis: "Trump has a malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he's never done anything wrong."....100-year-old Holocaust survivor Ruth Rozanski: "When I hear Trump speak, I hear Hitler again. When I see his rallies, it's like what I saw in Nazi Germany. Trump is like a dictator. He's crazy like Hitler was."....Trump on Gen. Mark Milley, retiring chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "A woke train wreck."....MSNBC's Neal Katyal on Trump: "I don't think that Mr. Bone Spurs is in any position to criticize any member of our military, let alone a war hero like Gen. Milley."....Milley on a second Trump presidency: "He'll start throwing people in jail, and I'd be on the top of the list."....Ralph Nader: "Fascism is what the architecture of the GOP will be.".... Trump on wounded prisoner that Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher stabbed in the neck: "He was going to die anyway."....Trump on judges and prosecutors in his various legal cases: "deranged," "thugs," "hacks," "corrupt," "biased," "disgraceful," "radical," "unAmerican."....Vladimir Putin on Trump indictments: "Everything that is happening with Trump, this is persecution for political reasons of one's political rival."....radio host Mark Levin: "America has never experienced this kind of Stalinism that Trump is contending with. It's unconscionable."....Dan Rather on Republican Party: "A grand old party, if your idea of a party is cheering for the end of freedom and democracy...These days the acronym GOP could also stand for Gaga Over Putin."....Heather Cox Richardson: "The Republican Party has truly died. By suicide."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on President Biden: "You old fart."....Donald Trump Jr. on Dems: "Their political strategy is literally to stop Biden from physically falling on his face because he is so weak!"....Lee Drutman tweet: "GOP learns the hard way: Turning the base up too high blows out your Speaker."....

  • September 19, 2023

    ....Rep. Matt Gaetz on Speaker Kevin McCarthy: "Lying like a dead dog."....Rep. Greg Landsman: "Most of us came here to govern, not indulge Matt Gaetz when he has one of his tantrums."....Sen. John Fetterman on Gaetz: "Instead of crying about how I dress, how about you get your s*** together and do your job, bud?"....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on the federal government: "An overgrown monster that is ruining everyone's lives."....Rick Wilson on Greene: "One notch from throwing her feces on the House floor."....Newt Gingrich on Dems: "Committed to killing your baby on the last day, or, in some cases, committed to killing your baby up to 30 days after it's born."....RFK Jr.: "You cannot trust advice from medical professionals."....Sen. Ron Johnson: "All this climate change alarmism is based on bad science."....Rudy Giuliani on himself, surrending in Fulton County, GA: "Isn't that nice? A mugshot to the man who probably put the worst criminals in the 20th century in jail."....radio host Mark Levin: "Can you name one victim during the Stalin regime who was indicted in four different jurisdictions? Why go through the motions of justice -- just hang the guy."....Fox host Jeanine Pirro on Biden: "He has a lack of empathy. He is egocentric...He's lying...He's a narcissist and an egomaniac."....HRC on Trump: "A wrecking crew."....Trump on Biden: "Totally corrupt and the worst president in the history of our country."....Sen. John Kennedy: "Everyone has the right to be stupid now and then. But for the last two years, President Biden has abused the privilege."....Trump on Fani Willis: "A Radical Left, Lowlife District Attorney."....Frank Bruni: "Trump is a mere three years younger than Biden, and he's overweight. His diet is garbage. His cardio is golf putts."....Rep. Nancy Mace on fellow Republicans: "I have a fantastic pro-life voting record, but I also understand that we cannot be assholes to women."....Nikki Haley: "Right now, the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country."....Tucker Carlson on Chris Wallace: "Bitchy little man. He's a fussy little man."....Robert De Niro: "Supporters of Donald Trump are without a doubt the stupidest f***ing people alive. They are simply cowards without morals or personal integrity."....Stephen King on Trump: "Your basic Great American Manslob."....Sean Penn on Trump mug shot: "Angry used car salesman...Failed magician in Vegas."....Trump: "The January 6th Unselect Committee of Marxists, Fascists, and Political Hacks...lowlifes."....Rudy Giuliani on DOJ and FBI: "More like the secret police in a fascist or communist or Nazi state. They don't operate like anything we would recognize as the DOJ or the FBI."....Sen. Ted Cruz on Dems: "We could literally have video of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs handing Joe Biden bags of cash or three-carat diamonds or sports cars or watches, and that would not be enough to move a single Democrat vote."....Aaron Rupar: "Trump's legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train."....Peggy Noonan: "DeSantis carries a vibe that he'd unplug your life support to recharge his cellphone."....