“So I’m going to vote for Mrs. Clinton”.
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He was responding to Mr Obama’s strong statement earlier in the day in which he slammed the real estate tycoon for his anti-Muslim rhetoric including temporary ban of entry of Muslims in the U.S., increase in surveillance and for describing it as “radical Islamic terrorism”.
“Trump’s comments regarding the president crossed every line”, John Weaver, the senior strategist for Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s failed Republican presidential campaign, wrote on Twitter.
Trump’s unfavorable rating far surpasses Hillary Clinton’s even as the presumptive Democratic nominee received her worst ratings in more two decades in public life.
US Senator Lindsey Graham of SC, who ran against Trump for the Republican nomination and has been a fierce critic since, said Trump’s response made him “unnerved”.
Meanwhile, legal scholars say Mr Trump’s proposal for suspending immigration from parts of the world with a history of terrorism could have a legal basis, but his assertion that it be part of a broader ban on Muslim immigrants makes it constitutionally untenable. The congressman, who has not endorsed Trump, said that while it’s fair to criticize aspects of Obama’s approach to combatting terrorism, “I part company with those then who want to get into these conspiracy theories”.
“The sharp rebuke coming at nearly the same time as Hillary Clinton delivered her own shots today, at times sounding like they were reading from the same script, ” applauded NBC’s Kristen Welker on Nightly News, “The tag team, a preview of the onslaught Trump is facing in the fall”.
“They’re in kind of a fog”, Armitage said. Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently? “Do Republican officials actually agree with this?”
Malik Mujahid, a Chicago area imam, said Trump is using a general sense of fear and insecurity stemming from the San Bernardino attacks last December and the Orlando shootings to stoke Islamophobia in the hope of rallying his supporters.
“I guess I appreciate Mr. Trump’s fieriness in talking about it, and strength, but you don’t do it by alienating the very people we need and those are moderate Muslims”, Kinzinger said.
But an unbowed Trump refused to back down.
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Trump’s suggestions about Obama come as the president takes a more active role in the White House race.
