DONALD TRUMP DROPPED jaws in Virginia yesterday by telling a mother and her crying baby to leave a rally.
The Republican presidential nominee initially told the rally in Ashburn: “Don’t worry about that baby. I love babies. I hear that baby crying, I like it. What a baby.
“What a beautiful baby. Don’t worry, don’t worry. The mom’s running around like – don’t worry about it, you know. It’s young and beautiful and healthy and that’s what we want.”
However, when the baby continued to cry throughout his speech, he changed his mind.
“Actually, I was only kidding, you can get the baby out of here,” he said, as the crowd laughed.
That’s all right. Don’t worry. I, I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I’m speaking. That’s OK. People don’t understand. That’s OK.
‘He makes you want to retch’
Trump himself also became a target yesterday as French president Francois Hollande told journalists in Paris that the candidate makes “you want to retch”.
His excesses make you want to retch, even in the United States, especially when — as was Donald Trump’s case — he speaks ill of a soldier, of the memory of a soldier.
The French leader was referring to a feud between Trump and the Muslim parents of a slain US soldier, which has shaken the presidential campaign just three months before the November vote.
Hollande criticised Trump’s “hurtful and humiliating comments”.
The Republican campaign to retake the White House is reeling from a series of self-inflicted scandals as Trump has in recent days criticised Muslims, babies, firefighters and the military, prompting his wincing Republican backers to issue awkward denunciations.
US President Barack Obama also joined the fray, declaring Trump “unfit” to hold the country’s top office in his strongest rebuke yet of the 70-year-old mogul.
Obama described Trump as “woefully unprepared” and “unfit to serve as president”.
“He keeps proving it,” Obama added, as he called on Republican leaders to disown him.
- © AFP 2016 with reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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