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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 7, 2023

    Sen. Marco Rubio on the U.S.: "A once-great superpower that's hollowed out, it's in decline."....Fox News' Greg Gutfeld on Biden: "An empty vessel...The handlers just insert their USB drive into his brain and he pumps out these shallow and insipid platitudes."....Sen. Ted Cruz: "Joe Biden is Mr. Magoo."....radio host Mark Levin on Biden: "Bought and paid for by the Communist Chinese government."....Rep. Lauren Boebert: "Ron Klain has been by Biden's side for many, many years. Frankly, more than most would be able to tolerate."....Dan Bongino: "Biden is the single most destructive force ever to sit in the Oval Office. He's an unprecedented combination of corruption, lies, incompetence, greed, and weakness."....George Santos, 2021: "BIDEN IS A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!"....Sen. Ron Johnson on Biden: "Where does Biden draw the line? Would he allow North Korea to float a submarine up the Mississippi River?"....former Rep. Madison Cawthorn: "Hunter Biden should be in prison. Joe Biden should be in a home. RINOs should be fired. America should be free."....Donald Trump Jr.: "The propaganda coming from today's media would make Stalinist Russia blush."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on her job: "Becoming a member of Congress has made my life miserable. I made a lot more money before I got here...we don't get to go home and spend more time with our families, our friends..."....Boris Johnson on Putin: "He stands for war, aggression, systematic murder, rape, and destruction. That's what he stands for."....Donald Trump Jr. on war in Ukraine: "This stuff should be over STAT!"....Newsmax host Jenn Pellegrino on Colin Kaepernick docudrama series: "Guess he just doesn't feel like enough people hate America yet."....Mike Pompeo on John Bolton: "Should be in jail."....Tim Weiner on Pompeo's memoir: "Like being locked in a room and forced to listen to 20 hours of Tucker Carlson reruns at top volume."....Tucker Carlson: "The race riots of 2020 of course were never about George Floyd, obviously. That's why there are no statues of him in American cities."....D.L. Hughley on Carlson: "This dude is so obsessed with Black people, I'm going to start calling him Sickle Cell."....Carlson on Meghan and Harry: "The fake duchess from LA and her mentally deficient husband."....Jason Selvig on Carlson: "Reads angry bedtime stories to millions of adults."....Sen. John Kennedy on Rep. George Santos: "A bunny boiler."....Trump on report that Chinese balloons went through US airspace during his administration: "Fake disinformation."....Trump: "Don't understand how so much time and effort can be devoted by the D.A. to an absolutely "PERFECT" set of phone calls protesting Election Fraud in Georgia, when Atlanta is one of the most Crime and Murder infested places anywhere in the U.S."....Charles C.W. Cooke on Trump: "Ranting like a deranged hobo in a dilapidated public park...He's morphing into one of the three witches from Macbeth."....Lincoln Project: "SINO (Speaker in Name Only) Kevin McCarthy has sold his spine to Marjorie Taylor Greene, his larynx to Matt Gaetz, and the scattered remains of his soul to the hungry ultra-MAGA masses."....MSNBC's Ayman Moyeldin on Sen. Lindsey Graham: "Blink twice if you need help, Senator. We're here for you, sir."....former Gov. Chris Christie on Trump: "The only man to lose to Biden outside Delaware."....Rep. Clay Higgins: "This Chris Christie guy is quite an ugly woman...Ms. Christie, America doesn't like you. We change the channel when you're on TV. You look like a man and you have an attitude."....Jimmy Kimmel on Trump speaking at Diamond's memorial service: "He almost spoke about her. It was more of a me-logy than a eulogy."....

  • January 23, 2023

    Rep. Elise Stefanik: "Each day it becomes clearer that Joe Biden and the Biden Crime Family are corrupt and significant threats to national security."....Newt Gingrich: "The Bidens are just a Delaware version of the Sopranos."....Michael Cohen on Trump: "If you think Donald wouldn't sell any of the [classified] information for a can of tuna or a package of stamps, you would be inaccurate."....Sean Hannity on Philadelphia: "Hell on Earth."....defeated candidate Kari Lake on her state's election system: "In Arizona we vote for a month, and then we count votes for two weeks until we get the outcome they want."....Donald Trump Jr. on World Economic Forum: "These are the people that want you eating bugs, and eliminating meat, and eliminating your ability to own anything independently."....Steve Bannon on Sen. Lindsey Graham: "He's a cancer...There's nothing good with having McConnell's mini-me, the snake, around you at all."....Rick Wilson on Floridians: "Do you wonder why DeSantis won by 19? Crazy people, that's why."....Trump on special counsel Jack Smith: "He is a terrorist. He is a Trump-hater...He should resign. His wife hates Trump."....Paul Ryan on Trump: "A proven loser...I can't imagine him getting the nomination, frankly."....Sen. Tom Cotton: "Pete Buttigieg couldn't organize a one-car funeral."....Sen. Debbie Stabenow on Kevin McCarthy: "Can't seem to organize his way out of a paper bag."....Rep. Matt Gaetz: "Supporting McCarthy is the worst human resources decision President Trump has ever made. Sad!"....Jonathan Alter: "McCarthy won by empowering far-right firebrands to make him their bitch."....Fox host Tucker Carlson: "You get the feeling McCarthy would crawl naked through a sewer to get this gig."....The View co-host Joy Behar: "Kevin McCarthy has no soul...no ethics...no morals...no spine. He's a shell of a human being."....Speaker Kevin McCarthy: "If you got the briefing I got from the FBI, you wouldn't have [Rep. Eric] Swalwell on any committee."....former congressman Adam Kinzinger on McCarthy: "He's a piece of s***...I'm not even saying that gratuitously to be mean to him. It's just a fact."....Trump on Biden: "A man who has no mind left -- and his mind in prime time wasn't any good, but he has no mind left."....Bill Kristol on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "She is drawn to hatred as a moth to a flame."....Greene: "Democrats are the party of death."....1/6 defendant Pauline Bauer, yelling at police officers in the Capitol rotunda: "Bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang that f***ing b****. Bring her out."....British media personality Jeremy Clarkson on Meghan Markle: "At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her."....

  • January 4, 2023

    Rep. Matt Gaetz on Rep. Kevin McCarthy: "If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Freedom Caucus: "They're proving to the country that they don't care about doing the right thing for America...They're just destructionists."....Rep. Lauren Boebert on MTG: "I don't believe in [McCarthy as Speaker], just as I don't believe in Jewish space lasers..."....James Carville on House Republicans: "We're watching them pass around live hand grenades."....Rick Wilson on House: "It's a week-long MAGA Fyre Festival at the pyramid of burning dumpsters in the radioactive waste dump on the peak of Rabid Clown Mountain."....Rep. Lauren Boebert on metal detectors: "When I arrived in Congress two years ago Nancy Pelosi put this hunk of garbage outside of the House chambers for Members of Congress to go through."....Trump lawyer Christina Bobb to Jan. 6 committee: "I'm really, really saddened by what's happening with our country right now. I think Democrats have completely destroyed it."....Trump on Jan. 6 "unselect committee": "There was no insurrection and there wasn't going to be an insurrection. It was made up by these sick people."....Trump: "The Failing New York Times is Fake and Corrupt News. Their motto should be ALL THE FAKE NEWS THAT'S UNFIT TO PRINT. They are the Enemy of the People!"....Trump on the US: "Now we have airports were people can't fly...It's sad when people can't come from New York to Florida. Airports are like -- we're like a third world country."....NY Post editorial on Trump: "Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us 1,438 times, and it may finally be too much."....Rob Reiner: "All you need to know about Trump's tax returns is he f***ed a porn star and wrote it off as a business expense."....Meghan McCain on Trump: "Good luck with the campaign, Cheeto Jesus."....Jimmy Fallon on Trump: "You know your campaign isn't going well when your reelection strategy is, 'Maybe people will like me as a Pokemon.'"....

  • December 12, 2022

    GOP operative Dan McLagan on Herschel Walker candidacy: "Was like a plane crash into a train wreck that rolled into a dumpster fire. And an orphanage. Then an animal shelter."....Fox host Tucker Carlson: "Zelensky is far closer to Lenin that to George Washington. He is a dictator."....Nick Fuentes on the USA: "This is an evil country...We need a dictatorship. We need to take control of the government and force the people to believe what we believe."....Sen. Josh Hawley: "The Biden people have tried to turn our government into a left-wing censorship machine."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "In order to bring accountability, we must gut the DOJ."....Laurence Tribe on MTG: "Thank heaven she's dumb as a rock. If she had a brain she'd be even scarier."....Elon Musk: "My pronouns are: Prosecute / Fauci."....Sen. Amy Klobuchar in response: "Could you just leave a good man alone in your seemingly endless quest for attention?"....former CIA director John O. Brennan: "You will be remembered most for fueling public hate and divisions. You may have money, but you have no class."....David Corn: "Paying $44 billion to own the libs is a world record. Congrats."....Fox News' Tomi Lahren on release of Brittney Griner: "I guess it pays to be a whiny celebrity who plays sports (even if no one watches)."....John Bolton: "A huge victory for Moscow over Washington."....Sen. Roger Marshall: "I hope she'll stand for the national anthem."....Rep. Eric Swalwell on Trump: "A legal terrorist."....former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi: "Trump's slippery slope is becoming a luge."....

  • November 22, 2022

    Eric Trump on appointment of special counsel: "This is communism."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "IMPEACH MERRICK GARLAND!"....Mike Huckabee on Garland: "Partisan tool."....evangelical leader Mike Evans: "Trump can't save America. He can't even save himself. He used us to win the White House."....James Robison of Life Outreach on Trump: "Sir, you act like a little elementary school child..."....commentator Everett Piper on Trump: "If he's our nominee in 2024, we will get destroyed."....Michael Wolff: "Mr. Trump's main goal isn't victory. It's holding the spotlight."....Michael Beschloss on Trump announcement: "I've heard funeral orations more cheerful and energetic than that speech."....Lawrence O'Donnell: "The triple-grand-jury candidacy."....radio host Mark Levin: "Joe 'Gotti' Biden of the Biden Crime Family."....Paul Krugman: "DeSantis's major achievement as governor; the unnecessary death of around 20,000 Floridians."....Trump on Ron DeSantis: "If he runs he could hurt himself very badly. I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife."....Rick Wilson: "Donald Trump would rather Joe Biden be president for a thousand years than Ron DeSantis be president for five minutes...He is a political suicide bomber."....Kari Lake on the media: "The right hand of the devil, the scourge of the Earth."....Donald Trump Jr. on John Fetterman: "That guy's brain dead. A United States senator should not have mush for brains."....Tim Young: "Fetterman just shattered the glass ceiling for vegetables."....Charlie Sykes: "Turns out the Red Wave is just ketchup on the walls at Mar-a-Lago."....GOP strategist Stephen Lawson: "Trump just keeps throwing boomerangs."....Ann Coulter on Trump: "You had your chance, with a Republican House and Senate...You handed foreign policy to your son-in-law and a country that gave your son-in-law #2 billion. Shut the f*** up, forever."....former Trump WH communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin: "We've got to just finally speak out and say, 'This man is a loser.' He lost 2020..."....Rep. Ronny Jackson: "Masks are just a BIG lie. They don't work. NEVER have...Covid is OVER."....Donald Trump Jr.: "The left has indoctrinated our children for decades now, by having some seven-hair-colored multiple-weirdo freak that doesn't even want to ever have kids become the head of the school board and the PTA."....Kari Lake to reporters: "I'm going to not only be governor for four years, I'm going to do two terms and I'm going to be your worst fricking nightmare for eight years...We're going to make you guys into journalists again."....Senate Republicans tweet: "In Biden's first two years...he divided the nation."....Proud Boys founder Stewart Rhodes in recording shortly after Jan. 6 attack: "If [Pence] is not going to do the right thing, and he's just going to let himself be removed illegally, then we should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I'd hang f***ing Pelosi from the lamppost."....Mike Pence on Trump: "His words endangered me and my family and everyone at the Capitol building."....Jonathan Alter on Republicans: "After January 6th, their position on the Capitol Police was: Back the blue -- unless it's a coup."....Trump: "Nothing good is happening in our country."....Tom Nichols: "Elon Musk's skin is thinner than filo dough."....James Carville on Herschel Walker: "He needs to have a brain scan. He's not right."....