US President Barack Obama today assailed Donald Trump for being "uniquely unqualified" and "temperamentally unfit" to be the next commander-in-chief as he asked Americans to recall how Republicans themselves were divided over having a "con man" as their presidential nominee.
"Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be President. He is temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief," Obama said at a well-attended Democratic rally in Columbus, Ohio.
"Don't take my word for it. Take the word of a lot of the Republicans who were saying this before they decided, politically, that it was convenient to support him. Then some of them decided, politically, it was inconvenient to support him again. They keep on doing backflips," he said.
"But think about what they said at the outset. That he was a con man. That he didn't have the temperament to do the job. That he didn't have the knowledge to do the job. Didn't have the experience to do the job. Somebody who claims to be a great businessman, but who repeatedly stiffs small businesses and workers out of what he owed them,"he added.
Obama said it would be a mistake to believe that Trump would champion the cause of the Americans as the 70-year-old real estate tycoon "did not have time his entire life for any one who was not rich".
"Because I was talking to some folks here on the way over, and I said to them, if you're a working person, if you are out there every day working hard, punching a clock, the notion that this guy is going to fight for working people, when his entire life he did not have time for anybody who wasn't rich or a celebrity; who wouldn't let you into one of his hotels unless you were cleaning the room; wouldn't let you onto one of his golf courses unless you were mowing the fairway -- come on! This guy is going to be your champion?" he asked as the audience roared back with a big 'no'.
"Come on! Because there are a lot of working folks in Ohio, proud people who make an honest living. And I hear them saying, well, I don't know, Trump, maybe he's not so bad. Come on! This guy? He says he'll be his own foreign policy advisor, because he says he's got a "good brain". Who talks like that?" Obama said amidst laughter.
He said Americans cannot afford a President who suggests we should torture people again, or ban entire religions from the country, "who insults POWs (Prisoners Of War) or attacks Gold Star mothers, or talks down to our troops and our veterans. Even a Republican senator said we can't afford to give the nuclear codes to somebody so erratic".
Trump does not represent the country, Obama said, adding the controversial billionaire's remarks against women were "habitual" and "a part of who he is".
"Somebody who spent 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people, open disdain not just for immigrants or Muslims, but Americans with disabilities. And we know what he said about women. This is the guy that you want to be representing the entire country all around the world?"
"By the way, this is not just one tape where he's bragging about how being famous allows him to get away with actions that qualify as sexual assault. This is a lifetime of calling women "pigs," and "dogs," and "slobs" and grading women on a 10-point scale," he said.
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"What I'm concerned about is we start acting like this is normal. And I hear people saying, well, this is just locker room talk. I've been in a lot of locker rooms. Look, I'll admit you wouldn't want to publish everything said in a locker room, but that wasn't said. This is habitual. And it is a part of who he is," Obama said.
He criticised Trump over apparently avoiding tax which merely showed that he is not willing to give anything back to the country that gave him everything.
"I mean, it would be one thing if you were thinking about voting for somebody who had been in the trenches, who knew what it was like to maybe not have enough money at the end of the month, who maybe had seen their parents working in a coal mine or on an assembly line, and knew what it was like to not be able to afford college.
"Now, maybe it's because he's not as rich as he says he is. But maybe he admits he hasn't paid his federal income taxes in years which he says makes him smart. But, actually, what it means is, after this country has given everything to you, you're not going to give a single dime back -- to our troops, or our veterans, or building roads, or building bridges -- or to our universities so that young people can get an education," Obama said.
