Obama denounces Trump's predatory comments, calling him 'insecure' 'One of the most disturbing things about this election is just the unbelievable rhetoric coming at the top of the Republican ticket,' the president said.

President Barack Obama offered a harsh condemnation of Donald Trump on Sunday, describing the Republican seeking his office as “insecure” and his rhetoric as “unbelievable” after a recording emerged of Trump bragging about groping women against their will.

“One of the most disturbing things about this election is just the unbelievable rhetoric coming at the top of the Republican ticket. I don’t need to repeat it. There are children in the room,” Obama said at a campaign event in Chicago, a reference to the tape that The Washington Post published on Friday that showed Trump saying he could kiss women and grab at their genitals because he is a “star.”


Obama went further than denouncing the 2005 comments about women caught on that tape, though, and invoked the Republican presidential nominee’s long history of making insulting statements on and off the campaign trail.

“But demeaning women, degrading women, but also minorities, immigrants, people of other faiths, mocking the disabled, insulting our troops, insulting our veterans,” Obama said, listing other inflammatory remarks for which Trump has faced criticism. “That tells you a couple things. It tells you he is insecure enough that he pumps himself up by putting other people down."

He added: “Not a character trait that I would advise for somebody in the Oval Office.”

On Sunday, Obama was in Chicago campaigning on behalf of Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat running to unseat Mark Kirk, the state’s Republican senator who faces a difficult reelection battle.

Obama has also stumped vigorously for Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, whose election would help ensure his own presidency’s legacy. In addition to arguing that Clinton is his rightful successor, basically begging the young and diverse coalition that propelled his 2008 candidacy to put their weight behind hers, Obama has spoken against Trump with increasingly strong words.

At Obama’s first appearance on the trail with Clinton, an early July event in North Carolina, he took on the Republican nominee in lighter terms, poking at Trump’s social media presence to argue he is unqualified to be president (referencing his younger daughter, Obama offered, “Sasha tweets, but she doesn't think that she, thereby, should be sitting behind the desk”).

But as the race has progressed, Obama has come to describe the prospect of a Trump presidency in increasingly dire terms. In late July, Obama charged that the Republican nominee’s rhetoric toward Muslims and terrorism was “ultimately helping do ISIL’s work.” In August, he denounced Trump as “unfit to serve” and called on Republicans to disavow his candidacy. And in September, Obama disparaged Trump in front of the United Nations and later told radio host Steve Harney that Trump “appears to only care about himself.”

Obama is scheduled to appear on behalf of Clinton at events in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Cleveland, Ohio — both swing states — this week.