during the first gop primary debate, donald trump took offense at questions posed by moderator megyn kelly and went on the attack. | ap photo by ben schreckinger 11/06/16 07:26 am est donald trump<u+2019>s campaign has been marked by an approach to messaging that seems at times to have been borrowed from triumph the insult comic dog. here are 16 insults that transcended the bounds of what<u+2019>s normally accepted in american political rhetoric. story continued below 1. outraged at megyn kelly<u+2019>s tough questioning of him during the first republican primary debate, trump went after kelly<u+2019>s bodily fluids : <u+201c>you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her <u+2014> wherever.<u+201d> 2. after john mccain criticized trump<u+2019>s rhetoric on immigrants, the businessman insulted the arizona senator for being captured by the enemy during his service in vietnam. <u+201c>he<u+2019>s not a war hero,<u+201d> trump said.<u+201c>he was a war hero because he was captured. i like people who weren<u+2019>t captured. <u+201d> 3. after khizr khan, the father of a slain muslim war hero, attacked trump at the democratic national convention, trump went after khan<u+2019>s wife. <u+201c>if you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably <u+2014> maybe she wasn<u+2019>t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me,<u+201d> he said. 4. trump insulted new york times reporter serge kovaleski, performing a mocking impression of his physical handicap . kovaleski suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that limits the movement of the joints and weakens the muscles around them. <u+201c>you ought to see the guy: <u+2018>uhh i don<u+2019>t know what i said. i don<u+2019>t remember.<u+2019> he<u+2019>s going, <u+2018>i don<u+2019>t remember. maybe that<u+2019>s what i said,<u+2019><u+201d> trump said while gyrating his arms wildly and imitating the unusual angle at which kovaleski<u+2019>s hand sometimes rests. 5. trump insulted carly fiorina<u+2019>s face. <u+201c> look at that face! <u+201d> he said. <u+201c>would anyone vote for that? can you imagine that, the face of our next president? 6. trump insulted undocumented immigrants from mexico, describing them as that country<u+2019>s criminal element. <u+201c>when mexico sends its people, they<u+2019>re not sending their best. they<u+2019>re not sending you. they<u+2019>re not sending you. they<u+2019>re sending people that have lots of problems, and they<u+2019>re bringing those problems with us. they<u+2019>re bringing drugs. they<u+2019>re bringing crime. they<u+2019>re rapists . and some, i assume, are good people,<u+201d> he said. 7. trump called hillary clinton a nasty woman during a presidential debate. "such a nasty woman," he interjected as clinton dinged him for his aggressive tax minimization practices. 8. trump insulting heidi cruz<u+2019>s looks, tweeting an unflattering photo of her next to a flattering photo of his own wife, melania. <u+201c>a picture is worth a thousand words,<u+201d> read the caption. 9. trump smeared cruz<u+2019>s father, rafael, touting a conspiracy theory that he was involved in the assassination of john f. kennedy. <u+201c>his father was with lee harvey oswald prior to oswald's being <u+2014> you know, shot. i mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,<u+201d> trump said. 10. trump called americans <u+201c>stupid<u+201d> and marco rubio sweaty in two-for-one shot last october. <u+201c>here's the problem with rubio: when you sweat that much ... now think of it. so you have putin - he's sitting over here. and he's waiting to kill the stupid americans because he's been just destroying us so badly. so he figures, and a guy walks in, and he's soaking wet and sweating. <u+2018>hello, hello, can i have some water?<u+2019><u+201d> 11. repeating the words of a supporter, trump called ted cruz a <u+201c>pussy<u+201d> in february. <u+201c>you know what she said? shout it out because i don<u+2019>t want to say it,<u+201d> trump said. <u+201c>ok, you<u+2019>re not allowed to say and i never expect to hear that from you again. i never expect to hear that from you again. she said he<u+2019>s a pussy. <u+201d> 12. trump compared ben carson to a child molester last november. <u+201c>it's in the book that he's got a pathological temper ," he said. "that's a big problem because you don't cure that ... as an example: child molesting. you don't cure these people. you don't cure a child molester. there's no cure for it. pathological, there's no cure for that." 13. donald trump insulted iowans as stupid in a tweet last october after polls showed ben carson overtaking him in the state. <u+201c> #bencarson is now leading in the #polls in #iowa . too much #monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain? #trump #gop, " read the tweet, which trump<u+2019>s account retweeted. later, trump blamed an intern for the tweet. 14. he called iowans stupid again last november for believing parts of ben carson<u+2019>s life story that he characterized as far-fetched. <u+201c> how stupid are the people of iowa? how stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?" trump asked. 15. he derisively referred to elizabeth warren<u+2019>s contested claim to native american heritage by repeatedly referring to her by the ethnically charged nickname pocahontas. "pocahontas is at it again!" trump tweeted in one instance, 16. trump called clinton a <u+201c>monster<u+201d> in august. "in one way, she's a monster," trump said of clinton at a rally in wisconsin. "in another way, she's a weak person. she's actually not strong enough to be president. so she's got both." at the same rally, trump also clinton "unhinged" and "unbalanced." by bill scher by joshua zeitz by thomas wright by jack shafer
2016 election: 16 insults that redefined acceptable political rhetoric - politico
ben schreckinger jack shafer