London -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama have come under fire after they were overheard talking rudely about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the G-20 summit . Sarkozy was overheard telling Obama : `` I ca n't stand him . He 's a liar , '' according to French website Arret Sur Images . Obama is reported to have replied : `` You 're tired of him ; what about me ? I have to deal with him every day . '' The comments have provoked criticism in Israel and the United States -- but it is not the first time a prominent figure has been caught off-guard , on-mic . CNN looks back at 10 of the most infamous gaffes . Gordon Brown on ` bigoted ' voter Then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown 's 2010 election campaign was not going well , but he had no idea how much worse it was going to get when he stopped to chat with a voter a week before the poll . Gillian Duffy , then a 66-year-old pensioner , proceeded to berate Brown , explaining why -- despite having backed his Labour party all her life -- she was now `` ashamed '' to admit her political allegiance . Brown kept up a polite conversation with her as the TV cameras looked on , then drove away unaware his microphone was still on . Once inside the car , he complained to advisers : `` That was a disaster . They should never have put me with that woman ... Ridiculous ... Bigoted woman . '' Brown later apologized , but went on to lose the election . George W. Bush to Tony Blair Brown 's predecessor , Tony Blair , was witness to one of the most famous on-mic blunders by U.S. President George W. Bush during a lunch meeting at the 2006 G-8 summit in Russia . Bush hailed the prime minister with the greeting `` Yo Blair ! '' and thanked him for a recent gift of a sweater . He then began discussing the situation in the Middle East , offering a not-entirely-diplomatic solution to the difficulties between Syria and Israel . `` What they need to do , '' he told Blair , `` is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s -- and it 's all over . '' George W. Bush on reporter The 43rd President of the U.S. was no stranger to the gaffe -- entire books were written about his famous `` Bushisms '' -- and they were in evidence even on the election trail . At an Illinois campaign stop in September 2000 , Bush was caught on camera referring to New York Times reporter Adam Clymer as a `` major-league a ------ '' -- to which his running mate Dick Cheney replied : `` Oh yeah , big time . '' Bush later said he was sorry his comments -- intended , according to his advisers , as a `` whispered aside '' -- were overheard . `` I regret that the private comments made it to the public airwaves , '' he said . `` I regret people heard the comments . '' Prince Charles on royal correspondent George W. Bush is not the only one to have voiced his frustration and anger at a member of the media in an unguarded on-camera moment . Prince Charles got himself in hot water with the British press when he was caught muttering under his breath about a reporter to his sons William and Harry during a photocall on a skiing holiday in Switzerland in 2005 . Taking exception to a question from the BBC 's veteran royal correspondent , Nicholas Witchell , the prince complained : `` Bloody people . I ca n't bear that man . He 's so awful , he really is . '' The comment did little to repair Charles ' fractious relationship with the media , and proved that gaffes can still offend , even when couched in polite language . Joe Biden to Barack Obama U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is in a class all his own when it comes to putting his foot in it . In one of his most famous blunders , he was caught on tape dropping the F-bomb while congratulating Obama over the signing of the controversial healthcare bill in March 2010 . Introducing the President to the media , he turned to hug Obama , and was heard whispering : `` This is a big f ------ deal . '' Jesse Jackson on Barack Obama Obama has also been the target of on-camera slip-ups . In the run-up to the 2008 election , veteran civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson was overheard accusing the then-Illinois Senator of `` talking down to black people . '' During the taping of an interview for Fox News , Jackson whispered to a fellow pundit `` I want to cut his nuts off . '' Jackson later apologized for his `` regrettably crude '' remarks , which became one of the immortalized soundbites of the campaign . John Major on colleagues -- and himself Elections are fertile hunting ground for gaffes , as politicians battle for airtime and headlines , but then-UK Prime Minister John Major found himself in trouble in 1993 when he admitted he did n't understand why people kept voting for him . The day after members of his Conservative party had rebelled in parliament over plans to expand Britain 's links with Europe , the normally unemotive Major was heard referring to the eurosceptic MPs as `` bastards , '' and threatening to `` crucify '' them . Speaking to a reporter after an interview -- when he thought the microphone had been switched off -- Major said he could not see `` how such a complete wimp like me keeps winning everything . '' Jacques Chirac on British food French President Jacques Chirac also had winning on his mind when he was caught out on tape , criticizing an entire nation in 2005 . Chirac was playing a leading role in Paris 's quest to host the 2012 Olympics when he tried to make the most of what he saw as a clear advantage over competitor city London : Food . `` The only thing that they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease , '' he told Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder . `` You can not trust people who have such bad cuisine . '' Predictably , the comments provoked the ire of the British tabloids , but the Brits had the last laugh days later , when London won the rights to stage the 2012 Olympics . Jean Chretien on U.S. politicians Chirac is not the only politician to have risked cross-border conflict with an ill-advised on-mic jibe . Speaking to his counterparts from Belgium and Luxembourg at a NATO summit in Madrid in 1997 , Jean Chretien , the then-Prime Minister of Canada , was overheard taking aim at his neighbors in the United States . Chretien was taped claiming that U.S. politicians would all be in jail if they worked in Canada or elsewhere , as they all sold their votes . Ronald Reagan on Russia While Chretien 's remarks did not prompt an attack on Ottawa , a joke by U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War could have had much more serious implications . Taking part in a sound-check shortly before his weekly radio address to the nation in August 1984 , Reagan `` announced '' to listeners : `` My fellow Americans , I 'm pleased to tell you today that I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever . `` We begin bombing in five minutes . ''