President Obama, speaking at a fundraiser in the Bay Area on Sunday night, said the behavior at the Republican presidential debates was at odds with core American values.

“Has anybody been watching the debates lately?” the president said at the home of John Thompson, chairman of Symantec.

In a reference to the GOP front-runner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Obama said: “You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change. It’s true.”

“You’ve got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don’t have healthcare and booing a service member in Iraq because they’re gay.


“That’s not reflective of who we are,” Obama said.

The comments came at one of four events for his reelection campaign Sunday, at the start of a three-day trip to the West Coast and Mountain West.