7 of the Most Controversial Lines of the 2016 Election

Some of the controversial lines of the election, going back to the primaries.

ByABC News
October 29, 2016, 6:47 AM

— -- This 2016 presidential election cycle has not been without controversy. Whether it was an intentional comment or slip of the tongue, the candidates have made more than a few comments that resulted in raised eyebrows.

Here are some of the most controversial lines of the election:

TRUMP ON MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. … They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Donald Trump made headlines on June 16, 2015 for the announcement of his presidential bid, but also for this statement. Many slammed Trump’s remarks as racist and led to businesses cutting ties with Trump. The comment has been replayed countless times during the course of the campaign.

CLINTON ON TRUMP SUPPORTERS

“You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call “the basket of deplorables.”

In September, Hillary Clinton told donors during a fundraiser in New York City what she thought about some of Trump’s supporters.

"To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call 'the basket of deplorables,' right?" Clinton said to donors at the event. "Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it. And, unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up."

Trump and his campaign quickly jumped on these remarks, calling on her to apologize.

“Hillary, they are not a basket of anything, they are Americans, and they deserve your respect,” Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence said at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.

TRUMP ON SEN. JOHN MCCAIN’S MILITARY SERVICE

“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

After Trump held a campaign rally in Arizona last July, Arizona Sen. John McCain, in an interview with The New Yorker, said Trump’s was supported by the “crazies” in his state. Trump responded by tweeting that McCain owed him an apology and called him a “dummy.”

Then, Trump took it up a notch. During last year’s Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Trump was asked whether he thought it was appropriate he called Sen. McCain a “dummy.”

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in his answer. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

Serving as a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War, McCain was captured and spent five and a half years as a Prisoner of War (POW) in a North Vietnam prison.

CLINTON ON LIBYA

“We didn’t lose a single person.”

During a town hall forum with MSNBC in March, Hillary Clinton defended the U.S.’ intervention in Libya that toppled the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“Libya was a different kind of calculation,” Clinton said, comparing it to U.S. intervention in Iraq. “And we didn't lose a single person.”

The Clinton campaign told Politifact that Clinton was referring to the seven-month NATO military action, from March to October 2011.

Critics jumped on her statement as it ignored the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, in which it left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

TRUMP ON THE KHAN FAMILY

"Maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say."

Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, , a soldier and a Muslim who was killed in 2004 by a car bomb in Iraq, strongly criticized Trump at the Democratic National Convention in July.

Responding to the Khan family in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump said of Ghazala Khan, “She was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably -- maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."

Trump had appeared to be tipping his hat to some far-right-wing and nationalist Twitter users who have suggested that Ghazala Khan was silent during her husband's speech because they are Muslim and he prohibits her from speaking.

Trump’s remarks -- which seemed to imply she was silent for religious reasons -- were criticized by both Republicans and Democrats.

TRUMP ON CLINTON’S GUN POLICY

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know.”

While campaigning in North Carolina, Donald Trump told supporters there’s nothing that can be done if Clinton gets to pick the next Supreme Court justices.

"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment," Trump said. "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know."

Trump’s running mate Mike Pence defended Trump’s comments, arguing Trump was not insinuating violence against Clinton. However, Democrats didn’t see it that way.

CLINTON ON THE COAL INDUSTRY

“We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

Clinton’s remarks during a CNN town hall in March landed her in hot water.

“I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” Clinton said.

As she tried to campaign in West Virginia in May, she was met with protesters.

At an event in Williamson, an out-of-work coal miner confronted Clinton about her comments.

She called it a “misstatement” and said she was “sad and sorry.”

“What I was saying is that, the way things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs,” she said. “That’s what I meant to say.”