Obama says Trump unfit to be US president, wants GOP to reject him

Washington: In his strongest denunciation of Donald Trump yet, US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the Republican presidential nominee is “unfit to serve as president” and asked the Republican leaders to withdraw their support for his candidacy over his rhetoric.

“I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president,” Obama said at a White House news conference. “I said so last week. He keeps proving it.”

Obama added that Trump has shown he is “woefully unprepared to do this job” after his comments on military families as well as his handle on foreign affairs. He slammed Trump for his rhetoric, including the one against parents of a slain Muslim-American soldier and said the Republican presidential nominee doesn’t have the judgment, temperament or understanding to be the president of the country.

He also criticised the Republican leadership who are supporting the billionaire from New York. “There has to come a point at which you say enough,” Obama said. “The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, means that he is woefully unprepared to do this job,” the president said at the White House.

Obama remarked that Republican denunciations of Trump “ring hollow” as they continue to endorse Trump. “The question that I think that they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? What does this say about your party that this is your standard bearer?” Obama said.

“This isn’t a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily and weekly where they are distancing themselves from statements he’s making.” Obama said this opinion of Trump is shared by prominent Republicans.

“I think what’s been interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading Republicans, including the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader and prominent Republicans like John McCain,” he said. “There has to be a point in which you say this is not somebody I can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party,” Obama said.

“The fact that it has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow. I don’t doubt their sincerity. I don’t doubt that they were outraged about some of the statements that Mr Trump and his supporters made about the Khan family,” he said referring to the statements made by Trump against the parents of Muslim-American soldier Humayun Khan who was killed in Iraq war by a suicide bomber.

At some point, Republicans should realise that Trump has gone too far and that the things he says indicates he “doesn’t have the judgement, the temperament the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world,” Obama said.
PTI