U.S. TV forced to bleep Trump's latest political insult

In what some political reporters are calling a history-making speech, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump repeated a vulgar insult aimed at Ted Cruz that was shouted during a rally Monday night in New Hampshire ahead of the primary. 

"She said, 'He's a pussy,'" Trump said about the words used by a woman in the crowd. 

Trump was taking Cruz to task about his stance on waterboarding, an "enhanced interrogation technique" used by the CIA during the Bush administration and ended by Barack Obama at the start of his presidency. Trump supports resuming the practice. 

The woman shouted something that wasn't audible to most of the rest of the room. 

"She just said a terrible thing," Trump said. "Shout it out, 'cause I don't wanna." 

The woman repeated the insult and Trump laughed. 

Trump jokingly admonished the woman.

"I never expect to hear that from you again," he scolded, before repeating the insult for the rest of the rally and for TV microphones. 

"Terrible. That's terrible," added Trump after repeating the insult, and the crowd went wild. Some started chanting, "Trump! Trump!" 

Journalists covering the event, leading up to Tuesday's primary, were taken aback by the vulgar language. 

One, however, said it's the kind of thing one should expect from Trump

Trump said he made a point of calling out the woman because he was previously criticized for not challenging a questioner at a town hall meeting who called President Barack Obama a Muslim. 

"Remember? I took a lot of heat. And I didn't reprimand the person who said it," said Trump. "So I just wanna tell you right now, ma'am, you're reprimanded." 

Journalists watching the speech were quick to call out the evident sarcasm. 

Reaction from commentators and comedians on Twitter varied

One journalist for mic.com followed up with the woman who shouted the phrase in the first place and asked her why she supports Trump. 

Tuesday morning, the New York Daily News criticized Trump for his schoolyard taunt

The latest example of Trump's crude speech patterns presented a challenge for American news channels. How do you cover a politician's campaign speech when you can't repeat the words he used? 

(On CBC News Network, we warned viewers of Trump's harsh language before running the clip unedited.)

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Trump defended the remarks, saying the crowd loved the line. 

"You're talking about close to 5,000 people. Standing ovation. Went totally wild," said Trump. "And all I was doing is repeating because people couldn't hear. So, I was doing everybody a favour."