His criticism, at a news conference with Singapore’s Prime Minister, is in response to Trump’s treatment of a Muslim family whose US Army captain son was killed in Iraq.
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The spat between Trump and the Khan family started last week when Khizr Khan, the father of the dead soldier, attacked the Republican nominee for calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US. “He keeps on proving it”, CNN quoted Obama as saying at a White House news conference.
“What does it say about your party that this is your standard bearer?”
Trump swiftly responded by posting a statement on his official Facebook page.
Obama’s comments Tuesday were more specific, but delivered in a more dispassionate tone than his own convention speech endorsing Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. They spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week.
His remarks sparked outrage in the USA, where families that lose sons or daughters who are serving in the army are known as Gold Star families.
And they turned this summer afternoon into one of the most politically heated of the 2016 campaign.
Trump later tweeted, “Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same – Nice!”
Donald Trump’s hopes of becoming US President took a battering yesterday as he sustained a string of criticisms from across the political spectrum.
Those who have worked with him say that in private meetings he can often appear amenable to putting a controversy aside. But the businessman can quickly be drawn back in by an interview, especially if he believes he has already answered the question, or if he grows irritated by commentary on cable television.
Obama said he never had reason to question the qualifications or fitness for office of the Republicans who ran against him, McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
According to Trump, Obama has failed as a leader, who along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, created a foreign policy that has unbalanced the world and has made it an unsafe place.
Missouri Senator Roy Blunt said the Khans “deserve to be heard and respected”. “The fact that that has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow”.
In a highly unusual attack on his possible replacement, Obama questioned why Republicans continue to endorse Trump, even as numerous Republican lawmakers have condemned his comments about the Khans, sometimes criticizing Trump by name and other times denouncing his comments but not mentioning him by name.
“Yes, I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president”, Obama said when asked about Trump’s capabilities.
He also criticised the Republican leadership who are supporting the billionaire from NY.
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“I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest”, he said at the event, before later repeating the claim on Fox News. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission.
