Speaking in Laos at the end of the second of two Asian summits, Obama said the tycoon’s lack of leadership credentials was exposed whenever he spoke and American voters were aware of that. He said Asian leaders would be puzzled by Trump’s remarks, and Americans would know who to choose as president on November 8.
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President Obama speaks during a news conference in Vientiane, Laos, Thursday.
JAKARTA ― Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told Barack Obama he never called him a “son of a bitch”, he said on Friday, but he maintained a defiant stance on his war on drugs, saying United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon was a fool for bringing up human rights.
“Ang sinabi ko, huwag akong bastusin”, Duterte said, reacting to information that human rights and alleged extrajudicial killings in the Philippines might be tackled during his meeting with Obama.
“The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed, or outright wacky, ideas”.
But acid-tongued Duterte on Friday said the Philippine expression “putangina” should not be taken at face value, and it was “an ordinary expression [used] by everyone”. The President said the cuss word was just an expression which was better translated to “son of a bitch or son of a gun”.
Mr Duterte, who assumed the presidency in June, has had an uneasy relationship with the United States, his country’s longtime treaty ally.
Duterte made his foul-mouthed comments on September 5 in response to a reporter’s question on the possibility that Obama will raise the issue of drug-related killings.
China claims much of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually.
He also said he showed a picture of an atrocity during the United States pacification campaign in the southern Philippines at the beginning of the last century at the East Asia Summit in Laos that included Mr Obama, in order to stop criticism over human rights violations in the war on illegal drugs. “Why now we are talking about human rights”, an Indonesian delegate said.
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The whole room was silent and he waited for Obama to respond but he remained quiet, Duterte said.
