‘Asshole’, ‘jackass’, ‘arrogant prick’: a potted history of politicians’ hot mic moments

To some it was an embarrassing, unguarded gaffe which may shape the outcome of a coming election. To many, it was nothing less than an inspired moment of unvarnished honesty and irreverence.

Whatever your view of Jacinda Ardern’s reference to a political opponent as an “arrogant prick” a few days ago, one thing is clear: the chances are the New Zealand prime minister won’t be the last politician to inadvertently tell us how it is — or at least give us a glimpse into their cheeky side.

Here’s a selection of Crikey’s favourite hot mic biscuits.

That 1984 moment

“My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes,” US President Ronald Reagan kidded during a sound test for his Saturday radio address in August 1984.

The remarks weren’t broadcast live, but the tape was later leaked to media outlets, putting Soviet forces on high alert and the Kremlin calling Reagan’s quip “unprecedently hostile”.

A plainspoken fellow for the times

Not to be outdone, at a campaign rally in 2000, George Bush Jr huddled with running mate Dick Cheney and nodded towards a reporter in the crowd. “There’s Adam Clymer,” he muttered, “[That] major league asshole from The New York Times,” to which Cheney replied: “Yeah, he is, big time.”

Unbeknown to Bush, his lap mic was on. Despite the predictable media backlash, Bush refused to apologise, insisting Clymer was responsible for some “very unfair” coverage: “I said what I said. I’m a plainspoken fellow.”

As it happens, Bush’s long-time canine pal Barney shared Bush’s dislike of some journalists, the Scottish terrier making headlines in 2008 for biting a Reuters reporter. Bush reportedly thought the journalist deserved it, while daughter Jenna conceded old Barney could be a “real jerk”. The famous moment was caught on camera, and has been uploaded here for perpetuity, titled: “WHY HE DID IT”.

War and peace advice

Bush threw us another plain-speaking bomb during the 2006 G8 summit in Russia, when a live mic picked up some of his advice to British prime minister Tony Blair on how to resolve the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah: “What they [the United Nations] need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit — and it’s all over.”

Blair, realising pretty much the whole world was privy to Bush’s frankly novel idea of asking the UN to encourage war, switched off the mic.

‘I can’t stand him any more’

Speaking of Israel, at the G20 meeting in France in 2011, some errant journalists wilfully ignored official instructions and plugged in their headphones early to be treated to this delightful exchange:

“I can’t stand him any more — he’s a liar,” French president Nicholas Sarkozy said of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu when chatting to US president Barack Obama. “You’re sick of him? I have to work with him every day,” Obama replied.

Of course, we already knew Obama was fond of a dose or two of off-the-record honesty. Two years earlier, in a pre-broadcast chat with CNBC’s John Harwood, he was asked for his thoughts on Kanye West’s bizarre MTV-Taylor Swift outburst: “He’s a jackass.”

A reporter promptly tweeted the remark and the footage was later leaked. Obama never retracted his remark, but did qualify it later by saying he thought West, though still a “jackass”, was nonetheless a “very talented [jackass]”.

A mad cow contribution

Proving once and for all the French have never really stopped hating the British, French president Jacques Chirac said this at a 2005 summit: “You can’t trust people who cook as badly as that,” prompting laughter from Russian President Vladimir Putin and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

An unsuspecting Chirac went on to labour the point: “After Finland, it’s the country with the worst food. The only thing the British have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease.”

Sadly or not so sadly for Chirac — depending on your view — journalists overheard the private conversation, adding another chapter to centuries of fairly frosty relations between cross-channel rivals.

That ‘bigoted woman’

But in a truly hot mic moment for the ages, British prime minister Gordon Brown described a voter he’d just met as a “bigoted woman” while he was on the 2010 campaign trail. “She’s just the sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour. I mean it’s just ridiculous,” he said to an aide, forgetting his lap mic was still on. Not the best move two weeks out from an election.

Still, it wasn’t as bad as Hillary Clinton’s “basket case of deplorables” moment, though the public intent of that remark obviously bars it from hot mic history. All of which, readers, brings us to the curious mutterings of one Joe Biden.

A ‘big fucking deal’

At the signing ceremony for the Obamacare legislation, Biden famously embraced Obama and said in a hushed whisper: “This is a big fucking deal.” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs defended Biden later on his official Twitter feed: “And yes, Mr Vice-President, you’re right …”

‘Stupid son of a bitch’

But in a less clear-cut hot mic moment, there’s this Biden jewel. When a Fox News reporter asked the president in January whether inflation would be a “political liability ahead of the midterms”, Biden sarcastically muttered: “No, [inflation is] a great asset. More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.”

It’s questionable whether this is a hot mic moment, however, given Biden was 1) standing right in front of a giant microphone and 2) in the middle of a live press conference. But some have disputed whether he knew the mic was on. Hmm.

Singling out the press

There’s also this equally ambiguous contender for hot mic history. After enduring a heated press conference in which reporters kept yelling out questions, Biden audibly grumbled: “You’re among the only press in the world that does this. Seriously, seriously.”

That upset a slew of right-wing commentators, who accused him of mocking their First Amendment rights. One can only imagine how pissed off they’ll be when someone tells them about the time Donald Trump called the media an “enemy of the people” and derided any and all unfavourable coverage as “fake news”.

The LNP is ‘very, very mediocre’

Back on the home front, you might remember the time former Queensland senator George Brandis was caught on camera calling his state LNP colleagues not just “mediocre”, but “very, very mediocre”. The November 2016 remarks, caught on camera, were made to then Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger, who wanted the latest gossip on internal Queensland politics.

Mocking Pacific Islanders

And at a Pacific Islands Forum in Papua New Guinea in late 2015, Tony Abbott was heard commenting on the forum running behind schedule. In answer, immigration minister Peter Dutton said: “Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door.” The prime minister openly laughed, only to stop after Scott Morrison pointed out the boom mic above them.