Republican leaders should withdraw endorsement of Trump, Obama says

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared Donald Trump unfit for office on Tuesday, and called on Republicans to distance themselves from their party's presidential nominee.

"Yes, I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president," Obama said Tuesday at a press conference with the prime minister of Singapore. "I said so last week, and he keeps on proving it."

"The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that has made such 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 lauded Gold Star families in a speech to disabled veterans on Monday, but did not mention Trump by name. Tuesday's comments were even more pointed, but delivered in a more dispassionate tone than his Democratic National Convention speech last week endorsing Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

In that speech, Obama argued that Trump's own convention "wasn’t particularly Republican — and it sure wasn’t conservative." But Tuesday, he took that argument a step further, saying Republican denunciations of Trump's more bombastic statements "ring hollow" from GOP leaders who continue to support his candidacy — notably House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

"The question I think they have to ask themselves is ... why are you still endorsing him?" Obama said. "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, where they are distancing themselves from statements he is making."