The 2016 election season began this year with a broad spectrum of personalities.
Donald Trump
But perhaps no personality is as quite as large as that of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Trump’s comments about women, minorities and religion have run the gamut this year from brash to what President Barack Obama indirectly called “bigotry.”
His remarks on barring Muslims from entering the United States created a firestorm of outrage on a global level.
“You’re going to have many more World Trade Centers if you don’t solve it — many, many more and probably beyond the World Trade Center,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.”
Joe Biden says no to 2016
Despite months of speculation and public interest, Joe Biden announced he would not be pursuing the presidency in 2016,
With his wife, Jill, and Obama at his side, he added, “I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.”
House speaker scramble
John Boehner’s resignation as House speaker came immediately after Pope Francis visited the capital.
“I decided today is the day I’m going to do this, simple as that,” Boehner said at a press conference.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was poised to succeed Boehner, but dropped out suddenly, causing the House to scramble.
Rep. Paul Ryan eventually took Boehner’s spot as speaker, but with conditions.
“I cannot and will not give up my family time,” he said before his election.
The Clinton campaign
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, hasn’t exactly had it easy.
In addition to the controversy surrounding emails she sent from a personal server while Secretary of State, which prompted an investigation by the Justice Department, she also endured an 11-hour congressional hearing dissecting her response to the Benghazi attacks.
Though the road has been rocky, Clinton has remained relatively unscathed.
Bernie Sanders
While Bernie Sanders may not be poised to win the Democratic nomination, he might have taken the cake for most memorable quote of the year. During the first Democratic debate on CNN, he told Clinton, “the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”
That line prompted a social media frenzy and made it into Larry David’s impression of Sanders during a “Saturday Night Live” skit.