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The Crying Baby Proved Who Trump Really Is

Over the course of his presidential campaign, Republican nominee Donald Trump has made offensive and bigoted comments about women, Muslims, black people, Mexican immigrants, members of the military, veterans, people with disabilities ... the list goes on. But on Tuesday, during a speech in Ashburn, Virginia, Trump tried to Make Babies Quiet Again — he asked a woman and her crying baby to leave his rally, less than a minute after reassuring her that her "young and beautiful and healthy" baby didn't bother him and insisting that "I hear that baby crying. I like it." In doing so, Trump took his mocking dishonesty to new, more explicit levels.

It wasn't just that he asked a woman to take her crying baby out of the room that was appalling. Trump might have forgotten this, but babies cry. It's what they do. What was more offensive was what he said while asking her to leave.

Actually, I was only kidding. You can get the baby out of here. ... I think she really believed me that I loved having a baby crying while I'm speaking. That's okay. People don't understand.

If he hadn't already done it a million times before, he certainly proved his dishonesty in that moment. He made a big deal out of reassuring the woman that having a crying baby in the room was OK, that she shouldn't worry. The fact that Trump quickly backtracked on his reassurances a few moments later and then mocked her for believing him indicates that he would willingly blame other people for not being able to discern his lies.

Let's put it this way, in case this seems like extreme extrapolation: If Trump's comments about a crying baby aren't sincere, then why should we think that anything he says is? If he can't even tell the truth about simple matters like this — and if he's willing to blame other people for his decision to be insincere — what happens when it's an important foreign policy matter? What happens when people's lives are at stake? He can't just blame China and Russia for everything that goes wrong, in the same way that he can't blame people for not always seeing through his lies.

The only truth in any of this is that we should be worried that a man like Donald Trump has progressed so far on the road to the presidency. Reactions to situations like this matter. If he can't stand a single protester at his rallies, if he isn't even able to deal with a baby crying during his speeches, and if he tries to deny things he has said moments after he has said them, he is not just too bigoted to be president. He is too dishonest — though there was never much of a doubt.