President Barack Obama slammed Donald Trump as “woefully unprepared” to serve in the White House on Tuesday and challenged Republican lawmakers to drop their support for their party’s nominee. Obama asked during a White House news conference.
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Obama placed responsibility for Trump’s statements squarely on his fellow Republicans, many of whom denounced his statements on the slain soldier’s family but didn’t withdraw their support. John McCain, R-Arizona, issued a critical statement responding to Trump’s remarks on the Khan family and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, issued statements defending the Khans.
“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?”
While he said he does not doubt the sincerity of Republicans, Obama said that at some point, Republicans will have to acknowledge what he views as the weaknesses of their standard bearer. Sen.
“The fact that it has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow”.
If they endorse Trump, they help cement the tie between Trump and the Republican Party, increasing the richly-deserved damage to the GOP for nominating such a person for our nation’s highest office.
“I never thought that they couldn’t do the job, and had they won, I would have been disappointed, but I would have said to all Americans, ‘This is our president, and I know they’ll abide by certain norms and rules and common sense, will observe basic decency, will have enough knowledge about economic policy and foreign policy and our constitutional traditions and rule of law that our government will work and then we’ll compete four yours from now to try to win an election'”.
President Barack Obama says the new US bombing operation in Libya is needed to drive out Islamic State group militants and restore stability to the troubled North African country.
Obama added that his criticism is more fundamental than policy differences. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton are both against it.
The president’s blistering critique of his potential successor came on the heels of Trump’s criticism of an American Muslim family whose son, a captain in the U.S. Army, was killed in Iraq.
Obama says people have legitimate fears about the impact of globalization and being “left behind” but the answer can not be to back away from trade and the global economy.
Trump backers attending the OH rally dismissed the issue, underscoring how the businessman was able to survive numerous such firestorms in the GOP primaries.
But Trump’s allies are already ginning up concerns that Democrats are trying to steal the election.
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The President is expected to play an outsized role on the campaign trail in the coming months as Clinton works to motivate the supporters who helped elect Obama to office twice.
