The White House has slammed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for strongly supporting his campaign manager who has been charged for "intentionally" assaulting a female reporter, saying such behaviour is "completely unacceptable".
"There's no denying that the kinds of actions and statements we've seen from this campaign is completely outside the realm of acceptable behaviour that's been observed by Democratic and President Presidents over the course of our history," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.
"I feel confident in doing something that I'm always loath to do, which is to express a view that I'm confident that even President George W Bush would agree and this is relevant because this is a prospect that Trump raised," he said when asked about Trump strongly defending his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Corey was charged with one count of simple battery for "intentionally" touching former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields at a campaign event in Florida on March 8. The footage of the incident was released by local police.
"I am confident that neither President Obama, nor President Bush would tolerate someone on their staff being accused of physically assaulting a reporter, lying about it and then blaming the victim. That is completely unacceptable behaviour," Earnest said.
"I know for a fact that's not something that President Obama would tolerate, and I feel confident in telling you that that's not something that President Bush would tolerate," he said.
"I'm also confident in telling you that nobody is particularly surprised that that's behaviour that Trump doesn't just seem to tolerate, he seems to encourage," he added.
Trump claimed that the allegations against Corey were false.
"She was grabbing me," Trump, 69, said at a CNN organised town hall in Wisconsin as he strongly defended his Corey.
"I am a loyal person. I am going to be loyal to the country. We have to tell it like it is. It would be so easy for me to terminate this man, ruin his life, ruin his family. Hes got four beautiful children in New Hampshire, ruin his whole everything, and say you're fired," Trump said.
He blamed Fields of false accusation and asserted that Corey would fight out the case in the court of law.
