President Barack Obama on Wednesday continued his efforts to boost the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton, once again attacking her Republican rival Donald Trump.
Speaking at a rally in North Carolina and quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Obama warned voters that Trump’s behavior won’t change if he becomes president, and called on voters to repudiate his statements and actions and elect Clinton.
“Do you want somebody to be your voice who on tape brags about how being famous allows him to get away with sexual assault?” Obama asked, adding, “Now, that is not the voice of America.”
Several women have accused Trump sexual misconduct, allegations which he has denied.
Obama called on voters to “choose hope” and reject Trump, which he deemed simply unfit to be commander in chief.
“We have to stop thinking that his behavior is normal, that it’s within the bounds of what has up until this point been our normal political discourse,” Obama said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“The fate of the republic rests on your shoulders,” he said, dismissing Republican hopes that Trump would behave differently if he’s elected president.
The office doesn’t change who you are, Obama said, “it just magnifies it.”
“If you disrespect women before you are elected president, you will disrespect women when you’re in office,” he added.
Obama’s appearance on the Clinton campaign trail comes as Clinton falls in polls, especially in the wake of the FBI’s reopening of her email probe – though some polls have shown that her fall began even before.
On Tuesday, anABC/Washington Postpoll found that Trump has a 1 percentage point edge over Clinton. However, Clinton’s campaign dismissed the results of that survey as “bad polling.”