Trump is 'unfit' for presidency-Obama

                                                    
President Barack Obama offered one of his sharpest denunciations of Donald Trump to date Tuesday, declaring the Republican nominee entirely unfit to serve as president and lambasting Republicans for sticking by their nominee.

The strong rebuke in the White House East Room came after Trump's criticism of the family of a slain Muslim US soldier, along with comments that displayed apparent confusion related to the Russian incursion into Ukraine.

"The Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president," Obama said at a White House news conference with the Prime Minister of Singapore. "He keeps on proving it."

Obama himself described his feelings as unprecedented, recalling disagreements with previous GOP presidential nominees Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney -- but never an outright sense they were unfit to serve.

"The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn't appear to have basic knowledge of critical issues in Europe, the Middle East, in Asia, means that he's woefully unprepared to do this job," Obama said.

Speaking alongside Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the White House East Room, Obama said there are now weekly episodes in which even Republican party leaders distance themselves from Trump.

"There has to be a point at which you say, 'Enough,' " Obama said.

Obama placed responsibility for Trump's statements squarely on his fellow Republicans, many of whom denounced his statements on the slain soldier's family but didn't withdraw their support.

"What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer?" Obama asked of GOP leaders. "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 at which you say, 'This is not somebody I can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party.' "

Obama said that denunciations from Republicans of Trump's remarks "ring hollow" without an accompanying withdrawal of support.