President Obama on Tuesday condemned Donald Trump for his attacks on a Muslim family who lost a son in Iraq and called on Republican leaders to revoke their endorsements of the GOP nominee.
“I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. He keeps proving it,” Obama said in a scathing broadside from the White House, where he was appearing with the prime minister of Singapore to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
“The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that made extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia means that he’s woefully unprepared to do this job,” Obama said.
The president also noted that leading Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and House Speaker Paul Ryan have condemned Trump’s remarks but still continue to endorse him.
“I think what’s interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading Republican, including the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader and prominent Republicans like John McCain. The question you have to ask yourself 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?” he said.
Obama pointed out that the criticism of the Khan family — which stretched over at least four days after Khizr Khan addressed the Democratic convention and blasted Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims — and his statement that Vladimir Putin would never invade Ukraine were just the latest in a series of unforced errors Trump has made while campaigning.
“This isn’t a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily and weekly where they are distancing themselves from statements he’s making. There has to be a point in which you say this is not somebody I can support for president of the United States. He’s woefully unprepared to do this job,” he said.
He said that while Republicans and Democrats disagree on most policy issues, he never questioned whether past GOP contenders McCain and Mitt Romney were capable of serving in the Oval Office.
“I didn’t have a doubt that they could function as president. That’s not the situation here. There has to come a point in which you say, enough,” he said.
Trump, in response, slammed both Obama and Hillary Clinton, saying that it was the former first lady who was unfit for the presidency.
“Obama-Clinton have single-handedly destabilized the Middle East, handed Iraq, Libya and Syria to ISIS, and allowed our personnel to be slaughtered at Benghazi. Then they put Iran on the path to nuclear weapons,” he said in a statement.
“Clinton has proven herself unfit to serve in any government office. She is reckless with her emails, reckless with regime change, and reckless with American lives. We need change now.”
It was the president’s harshest criticism of Trump since the convention, when he lumped “homegrown demagogues” in with fascists, communists and jihadists as threats to America.
Obama’s comments also came a day after Trump referred to Hillary Clinton as “the Devil,” and blamed the media for the firestorm over his criticism of the Khans.