Election 2016: Obama Urges Republicans To Dump Trump After Tape Scandal

U.S. President Barack Obama criticized Republicans who were still endorsing their presidential candidate Donald Trump even after the real estate mogul’s lewd comments on women.

Obama, while campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in North Carolina on Tuesday, blasted Trump saying his comments on women would make him unfit even for a job at a 7-Eleven convenience store.

“The fact is that now you’ve got people saying: ‘We strongly disagree, we really disapprove ... but we’re still endorsing him.’ They still think he should be president, that doesn't make sense to me,” Obama told the crowd at an outdoor amphitheater. “You can’t have it both ways here. You can’t repeatedly denounce what is said by someone and then say but I’m still going to endorse him to be the most powerful person on the planet and to put them in charge.”

“You don’t have to be a husband or father to say, ‘That’s not right.’ You just have to be a decent human being,” the president said of Trump’s comments on women. “The guy says stuff nobody would find tolerable if they were applying for a job at 7-Eleven.”

“If it makes you mad, then you say that’s not somebody I want representing the United States of America. You can do something about it, North Carolina,” Obama added.

Last week the Washington Post released a video of Trump boasting of groping women, which the 70-year-old dismissed as “locker room talk,” but had several Republicans speaking against the real estate mogul including House Speaker Paul Ryan. However, most senior Republicans stopped short of formally unendorsing him.

In a series of tweets, Trump blasted Republicans for abandoning him calling them “disloyal.”

He also took potshots at Ryan calling him a “very weak and ineffective leader.”

In North Carolina, a crucial battleground, Obama told the crowd, “You have everything to lose. All the progress we’ve made in the past eight years is on the ballot. Civility is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot, equality is on the ballot, democracy is on the ballot. If you want to send a message in this election … turn back the forces of racism and misogyny.”

He urged Republicans to denounce their candidate saying, “What did you think? He was going to transform himself? I mean I’m 55 and it’s hard for me to change. I know at 70 it’s going to be harder.”

Obama was interrupted thrice during his speech by anti-Clinton hecklers, two of whom donned T-shirts that called former president Bill Clinton a rapist. They were escorted out by security personnel. Obama, however, took it in stride saying, “This is democracy at work. This is great!” He told the crowd, “Don’t boo — vote!”