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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.

  • April 21, 2017

    CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Wikileaks: "Walks like a hostile intelligence service, and talks like a hostile intelligence service...Assange and his ilk make common cause with dictators today."....Trump on HRC: "She was guilty on every charge."....Richard Wolffe on Trump: "Has made the awesome transition from...a man who bluffed and blustered his way in TV debates to a man who bluffs and blusters his way through international crises."....Howard Stern on Sean Spicer: "The guy's just not informed...[He speaks] fluent moron."....Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in response to Andrea Mitchell's shouted question in a meeting room: "Who was bringing you up? Who was giving you your manners?"....Keith Olbermann on Trump: "You are a jackass. You are President Jackass."....GOP strategist Ana Navarro on Trump: "Attracts some of the shadiest, darkest, weirdest people around him."....Donald Trump, Jr. on Duquesne University students opposed to Chick-Fil-A on campus: "Luckily these students won't likely have to tackle issues more stressful than a yummy chicken sandwich in their lives."....Chelsea Handler: "I'm not a doctor, so I can't claim Donald Trump has syphilis, because of laws. But as the saying goes, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably f***ed some questionable models in the '80s."....Jonah Goldberg: "When people say 'Let Trump be Trump' they mean let Trump's id run free."....Larry King on Trump administration: "One of the most ridiculous presidencies I've ever seen."....
  • April 11, 2017

    Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Russia: "Clearly, they've been incompetent, and perhaps they've just simply been out-maneuvered by the Syrians."....Russian official newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Trump Syria strike: "This isn't the first demonstration of a completely incompetent U.S. approach -- similar to a big elephant in a small china shop -- to solving the most acute international problems."....Chinese state media: "The act of a weakened politician who needed to flex his muscles."....North Korea: "An absolutely unpardonable, undisguised act of aggression against a sovereign state, and we will punish them."....Trump on North Korea: "Looking for trouble."....WH press secretary Sean Spicer on Assad: "Hitler...didn't even sink to using chemical weapons."....Anne Frank Center on Spicer: "On Passover no less...has engaged in Holocaust denial, the most despicable form of fake news imaginable."....Lawrence O'Donnell on Fox News: "A cesspool of sexual harassment and abuse of women."....Rep. Maxine Waters on Bill O'Reilly: "Needs to go to jail."....Seth Meyers on Fox News: "Sycophantic coverage...The closest thing we have to state TV."....Scott Pelley: "The president's real troubles again today were not with the media, but with the facts."....Andrea Mitchell: "I've never seen anything like this where people just flat-out lie...It's really disconcerting to see the podium in the White House briefing room being used to mislead or misdirect or obfuscate."....GOP strategist Rick Wilson on Trump: "He. Is. Bad. At. Being. President....The daily chaotic s**tshow."....Trump on the U.S. "We have surrendered as a country to outside interests."....GOP strategist and CNN contributor Ana Navarro on Trump: "A lying, racist, misogynist pig...Attracts some of the shadiest, darkest, weirdest people."....Sean Penn on Steve Bannon: "Deep in his heart, he's just a conniving hateful bloated punk who despises mankind."....DNC Chairman Tom Perez on Trump Administration: "They don't give a s**t about people."....Ted Koppel on Trump Administration: "The multifaceted debacle continues."....
  • April 3, 2017

    Trump on Russia influence story: "A total scam!"....Historian Douglas Brinkley: "There's a smell of treason in the air."....LA Times editorial board on Trump: "So unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation...Nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck."....Sen. John McCain on Kim Jung Un: "This crazy fat kid that's running North Korea."....Lisa Bloom on Fox News: "The Bill Cosby of corporate America."....Amy Zimmerman on TMZ: "The Donald Trump of celebrity news sites."....Trump on New York Times: "Has disgraced the media world...Change libel laws?"....Sen. Lindsey Graham on House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes: "An Inspector Clouseau investigation."....Rep. Justin Amash on Trump: "Most people don't take well to being bullied. It's constructive in fifth grade, it may allow a child to get his way, but that's not how our government works."....Bill Maher: "It takes a village to help a man-child stay in power."....Matt Taibbi on Trump: "After four years of this we will forget what civilization ever looked like."....John Cassidy on Trump: "It often looks like the Keystone Kops are in charge."....VA gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam on Trump: "A narcissistic maniac."....Dubya on Trump inaugural address: "That was some weird s**t."....
  • March 28, 2017

    Rep. Rosa DeLauro on AHCA: "What does the GOP stand for? 'Get Old People.' That's what this bill does."....Rep. Jamie Raskin: "It's Lord of the Flies day here in the House of Representatives. They wanted to make us vote on a bill that no-one's even read...If a foreign power, like the Russians, proposed to do this to America, we would consider it an act of aggression and war."....Gov. Jerry Brown on AHCA: "This is not about health care reform. This is about disease, death, and suffering...It's written by people who don't know what the hell they're talking about."....Rep. Austin Scott on Freedom Caucus chairman: "Mark Meadows betrayed Trump and America."....Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham on AHCA: "House leadership drafted an awful bill and is now lying to itself that a deal wasn't possible."....Rep. Ted Lieu on Trump: "You are truly an evil man...Subverting Obamacare violates your oath."....Maureen Dowd on AHCA and Trump: "A cruel flimflam...You got played."....Dan Rather on AHCA fail: "A loser president."....Keith Obermann on Trump administration: "These people are idiots."....WH budget director Mick Mulvaney on Washington: "This place was a lot more rotten than we thought that it was."....Ted Koppel on Sean Hannity: "Bad for America."....Michelle Malkin on Koppel and CBS: "This ancient gatekeeper...These walking dead liberal media decrepit elitists...These people are enemies of true transparency...Conservative journalists like James O'Keefe...He can't be trusted, but they can?"....Ruth Marcus on Trump: "The pre-truth presidency."....Will Oremus: "Trump's reliance on dishonesty is not incidental to his character, or his appeal, or his approach to politics. It is his defining feature."....Fareed Zakaria on Trump: "He has spent this whole life bullshitting. He has succeeded by bullshitting. he has gotten the presidency by bullshitting."....Former WH spokesman Josh Earnest: "There is one page in the Trump White House crisis-management playbook. And that is simply to tweet or say something outrageous to distract from a scandal."....Rep. Maxine Waters: "Trump is a liar."....NY Daily News on Trump: "Dr. Evil."....
  • March 21, 2017

    Trevor Noah: "If Trump's lies are the virus, Fox News is the sex monkey that started it all...Fox News is the real president."....Ralph Nader on GOP budget: "Reflects corporatism, militarism, and racism. The mask is off. The fangs are out...The most vicious, ignorant Republican Party in its history, since 1854."....Gov. Andrew Cuomo on AHCA deal by NY congressmen Collins and Faso: "Cheap politics...They've declared war on New York."....Rep. Collins on Cuomo: "Running around all Chicken Little...Get a life, governor."....Sen. John McCain on Sen. Rand Paul: "The senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin."....Paul on McCain: "Makes a really, really strong case for term limits...A little unhinged."....Kremlin spokesman on U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee: "The hearing participants are confused about the situation. They are trying to find confirmation of their own conclusions but can't find either proof or confirmation and are going round in circles."....Tim Allen on Hollywood: "You can get beat up if you don't believe what everybody believes. This is like '30s Germany!"....Charles M. Blow: "Trump's life story is a pyramid scheme of ambitions...A false prophet."....Joe Scarborough on Trump: "He cherry picked the one return from over a decade ago and had it leaked to the press."....Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on Scarborough: "You better have proof to back up your claim and big mouth!"....Jake Tapper on Trump: "I've never seen this level of falsehood."....Erin Gloria Ryan on Trump: "Does not care about women, or the environment, or anybody or anything that does not make Donald Trump feel more manly...He is fat yet does not tolerate fatness in women...Maybe Donald Trump's masculinity is both the most fragile and dangerous thing in the world."....