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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March 8, 2023
....Fox host Tucker Carlson: "Zelensky is not a hero. He's an anti-hero. He's a destroyer...A Ukrainian pimp."....Sen. Ted Cruz on Zelensky: "I think People magazine is going to name him the Sexiest Man Alive. A Ukrainian flag has become like a COVID mask -- it's a sign to show your virtue."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Biden: "Is kissing Zelensky's ass."....former WH doctor, Rep. Ronny Jackson: "Biden is the cancer. He's what needs to be removed, not the lesion they found."....historian Michael Beschloss on Gov. Ron DeSantis: "A local Mussolini."....Trump on DeSantis: "A wheelchair-over-the-cliff kind of guy."....Putin on the West: "Is perverting its own people, destroying the family, mocking children. Even pedophilia is declared the norm. They are even considering God to be gender-neutral!"....Tucker Carlson on House Speaker McCarthy: "A puppet of the Democratic party."....Hasan Minhaj on Carlson: "A moral vacuum. A hole, if you will, who glorifies election deniers."....CNN's Jim Acosta on Fox News: "A bullshit factory."....Kimberly Guilfoyle on Jan. 6th committee: "How horrific and brain-damaged are these people?...I had to go testify for like 14 hours, and I wasn't even at the Capitol!"....Ralph Nader on Elon Musk: "A gigantic corporate welfare king masquerading as a capitalist businessman."....Trump on pre-Trump GOP: "Ruled by freaks, neocons, open-border zealots, and fools."....Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: "He should change the hats to say 'Make America Whine Again.'"....Stephen Colbert on Kari Lake: "The sitting governor of the state of denial."....
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February 20, 2023
Fox News' Greg Gutfeld on Greta Thunberg: "A bug-eyed brat."....Ben Shapiro on Chelsea Handler: "This lady is miserable, and it's written all over her face."....radio host Jesse Kelly on Handler: "Your womb resembles a dried-up tumbleweed blowing down an old Western town."....Tucker Carlson on Handler: "An aging, deeply-unlikable woman who never had kids."....Chelsea Handler on Carlson: "I think we both know that you are hate-masturbating to me, and I'm down with that."....Nikki Haley: "It's always the liberals who are most sexist."....Ann Coulter on American-born Nikki Haley: "A preposterous creature...Why don't you go back to your own country and reconsider that history? This is my country, lady."....John Bolton on Haley: "Light as a feather."....Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: "America is BROKE. Criminals and Cartels reign."....Sen Ted Cruz: "Joe Biden becoming president was the single greatest thing to happen to the drug cartels."....Stuart Stevens: "The FBI can search Mike Pence's home every day for the next twenty years and they're not going to find the spine of Mike Pence."....Elon Musk: "My pronouns are Prosecute / Fauci."....Donald Trump Jr. on Sen. John Fetterman: "The vegetable senator from Pennsylvania."....Sen. Mitt Romney on Rep. George Santos: "A sick puppy."....Rep. Ronny Jackson on Rihanna: "Why is the NFL showcasing this crap?"....US Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Putin: "Continues to change generals the way I change sox."....Sen. John Kennedy: "I wouldn't turn my back on President Xi if he were two days dead."....Heather Digby Parton: "Trump was always a warmonger, it's just that his war was always going to be waged against his enemies at home. Can DeSantis beat that by fighting teenage trans kids?"....Trump on DeSantis: "Meatball Ron."....Tucker Carlson on Biden: "Instituting a government-wide system of racial discrimination that dwarfs Jim Crow."....Sacha Gilbert: "What I want to know about Hunter Biden is: Why did the Saudis give Jared Kushner $2 billion?"....
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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."....
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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."....
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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.'"....