Obama told Sharpton he was alarmed that Trump doesn’t “immediately disown” racist groups who have backed his candidacy, like the KKK . Obama said Trump’s hesitancy to disown those groups “sends signals that he is OK with discrimination against minorities.”

“These are things that he says on an ongoing basis. Comments that would have once been considered completely disqualifying by a Democratic or Republican candidate,” Obama said. “And imagine if I, when I had been running, had said one-tenth of the things that Donald Trump has said. People would have immediately said, ‘That person’s not qualified to be president.’ If [Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary Clinton right now said just a fraction of the things Mr. Trump said, people would be outraged and Republicans would say, ‘You can’t have that person serving.’”