Multiple media figures derided Hillary Clinton's laugh during the first Democratic presidential debate, calling it a “cackle” and “a record scratch.” During the 2008 presidential race, Clinton's laughter was repeatedly attacked, despite criticism that such attacks were rooted in sexism.

During the October 13 CNN debate in Las Vegas, Clinton laughed after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders defended her from repeated questions about her use of private email by criticizing the media for fixating on the issue and saying, “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!” Clinton and Sanders shook hands as the crowd applauded.

The moment has been described by several outlets as a highlight of the night.  

But several media figures initially focused on Clinton's laugh. BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski tweeted, “oh god the Clinton laugh is out,” while the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza wrote, “THE CLINTON LAUGH,” and Fox's Sean Hannity tweeted “Omg that laugh.”

Several conservative media figures took it further, calling it a “cackle”:

::looks up 'cackle' in the dictionary:: ::sees Hillary's face::

-- Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) October 14, 2015

(Hillary's laugh grates like a record scratch.)

-- Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) October 14, 2015

The cackle. Drink!

-- Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) October 14, 2015

Cue the cackle. #DemDebate

-- toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) October 14, 2015

Attacking Clinton's laughter was a common theme during the Democratic primary before the 2008 election. In September 2007, after Clinton appeared on several Sunday political talk shows and laughed in response to some questions, media figures spent weeks debating and mocking her laughter. Fox News led the charge, with Bill O'Reilly even discussing Clinton's laughter with a “body language expert” who deemed it “evil,” and Sean Hannity calling the laugh “frightening.”

The mainstream press picked up on the attacks on Clinton's laugh, with New York Times political reporter Patrick Healy writing an article with the headline “Laughing Matters in Clinton Campaign,” in which he described Clinton's “hearty belly laugh” as “The Cackle,” calling it “heavily caffeinated” and suggesting it may have been “programmed.”

Then-Politico reporter Ben Smith also described Clinton's laugh as her "signature cackle," while Politico correspondent Mike Allen and editor-in-chief John F. Harris wrote that Clinton's laugh “sounded like it was programmed by computer.”

And New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who has a long history of nasty attacks on Clinton, claimed Clinton's laugh was allowing her to look less like a “hellish housewife” and a “nag” and more like a “wag”:

As Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, once told me: “She's never going to get out of our faces. ... She's like some hellish housewife who has seen something that she really, really wants and won't stop nagging you about it until finally you say, fine, take it, be the damn president, just leave me alone.”

That's why Hillary is laughing a lot now, big belly laughs, in response to tough questions or comments, to soften her image as she confidently knocks her male opponents out of the way. From nag to wag.

The list goes on: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, then-MSNBC host David Shuster, then-MSNBC host Tucker Carlson, radio host Mike Rosen, Dick Morris, the Drudge Report, The Boston Globe's Joan Vennochi, Time magazine's Joe Klein, the New York Times' Frank Rich, CNN's Jeanne Moos, and others all debated or derided Clinton's laughter during Clinton's first run for president.

Politico's Allen said on MSNBC during all of this that "'cackle' is a very sexist term," and disputed MSNBC's Chris Matthews' use of it in reference to Clinton. Other outlets agreed; Jezebel called out Matthews for his “cackle” criticism and other derisive remarks, asking, “can we agree that no matter what your political allegiances, this is not the way you speak of a woman -- whether she is a senator or not?” Rachel Sklar, writing in the Huffington Post, said at the time “I keep finding sexist Hillary Clinton bashing everywhere I turn,” noting that criticisms of the candidate's laughter “turn completely on the fact that she's a woman. 'The Cackle?' So would never be applied to a man. We all know it.”

Unfortunately, the criticism hasn't stopped in the intervening seven years. The Washington Free Beacon has a “Hillary Laugh Button” permanently on its site. The National Journal published in June 2014, many months prior to Clinton declaring her second bid for president, a “Comprehensive Supercut of Hillary Clinton Laughing Awkwardly With Reporters.” And conservative tweet-aggregator Twitchy in August mocked “scary as hell” pens which featured “Clinton's cackling head.”