President Barack Obama spoke today about how Donald Trump is “woefully unprepared” for the job of President of the United States. He urged Republican leaders to rescind their endorsements of Trump and stated that unless they did so, they would effectively be endorsing and validating Trump’s bigotry, ignorance, and hatred.
Standing alongside Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, President Obama discussed the fact that Donald Trump lacks the basic skills to serve as president, such as “knowledge about economic and foreign policy,” respect for and understanding of the Constitution, and “basic decency.” He said that Republican leaders need to do some real soul-searching about their own principles and what they want their party to represent:
“I think the question they have to ask themselves is, ‘If they repeatedly have to say in very strong terms that what he says is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?’ What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer? This isn’t a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily and weekly. There has to come a point at which you say, ‘This is not somebody I support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party.’ The fact that this has not happened makes these denunciations ring hollow.
I don’t doubt their sincerity; I don’t doubt that they were outraged by the statements Mr. Trump and his supporters made about the Khan family. But there has to be a point where you say, ‘Someone who makes that kinds of statements doesn’t have the judgment, the temperament, or the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world.’ Because a lot of people depend on the White House getting stuff right.
This is different than just having policy disagreements. I recognize that they profoundly disagree with myself and Hilly Clinton on tax policy or certain elements of foreign policy. But there have been Republican presidents with whom I disagreed with, but I didn’t have a doubt they could function as president. I think I was right and Mitt Romney and John McCain were wrong on certain policy issues, but I never thought they couldn’t do the job. And had they won, I would have said to all Americans, ‘This is our president, and I know they’re going to abide by certain norms and rules and common sense and will observe basic decency, and have enough knowledge about economic and foreign policy and constitutional traditions and rule of law that our government will work. And we’ll compete four years from now to win an election.’
But that’s not the situation here. And that’s not my opinion — that’s the opinion of many prominent Republicans. There has to come a point at which you say, ‘Enough.’ The alternative is that the entire Republican Party effectively endorses and validates the positions being articulated by Mr. Trump.”
Michael D. Shear of The New York Times noted that while President Obama and Prime Minister Loong were holding this press conference, Donald Trump was giving a speech at a rally in Virginia, where he said that Hillary Clinton has “the temperament of a loser.” Trump went on to insult world leaders such as Angela Merkel and criticize Hillary Clinton for not having a better relationship with Vladimir Putin. Trump also urged the crowd to chant, “Lock her up!”
Watch President Barack Obama’s full response:
