US president Barack Obama has said Donald Trump is unfit to succeed him on the day a Republican member of Congress broke ranks with his party and endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
Mr Obama said that Mr Trump's attacks on the Muslim parents – Khizr and Ghazala Khan – of a soldier killed in Iraq mean the Republican candidate is "woefully unprepared" to serve as president.
“There has to come a point at which you say ‘enough’,” Mr Obama said, addressing Republican leaders who he said have repeatedly denounced statements made by Mr Trump but who continue to endorse him for president.
“The question I think that they have to ask themselves 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?” Mr Obama said.
“What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer?” Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama said that even if he had lost his White House races in 2008 to John McCain and in 2012 to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, he would not have doubted their abilities to lead the country.
That was not the case for Mr Trump, he said.
“There has to come a point at which you say, somebody who makes those kinds of statements doesn’t have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world,” Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama was speaking at a White House news conference with Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
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Richard Hanna – US representative from New York – had long said he would not support Mr Trump in the general election. However, by throwing his support to Ms Clinton, he became the first Republican member of Congress to join forces with the Democrats against Mr Trump.
He also denounced Mr Trump’s attacks on the Khans. “I was stunned by the callousness of his comments,” Mr Hanna said. “I think Trump is a national embarrassment. Is he really the guy you want to have the nuclear codes?”
Mr Hanna said he disagreed with Ms Clinton on “many issues”, but would vote for her anyway. “She stands and has stood for causes bigger than herself for a lifetime. That matters.”
Mr Hanna, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term, has been a maverick within the Republican Party since his election in 2010. He drew a serious primary challenger from the right in 2014 in large part because of his vocal support for same-sex marriage.
But his support for Ms Clinton is another sign of the extraordinary dissatisfaction with Mr Trump within the Republican Party’s elected ranks, especially as he forges ahead in his feud with the Khan family.
Mr Hanna's announcement also came as Mr Trump's campaign cancelled a planned stop Thursday in Plattsburgh, New York, an upstate city north of Hanna's district. Mr Trump has continued to toy with competing in New York as a general election target, despite its overwhelmingly Democratic electorate.
Mr Hanna announced his plans in an interview and opinion column on Syracuse.com.
– Agencies