Trump violates 'basic values', says Obama

US President Barack Obama said that Republican nominee Donald Trump does not share the values of most Americans and is "uniquely unqualified" to hold the nation's highest office.

Obama on Friday travelled to North Carolina for the second time in three days to rally support for Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton, Efe news reported.

"Don't choose fear. Choose hope," the country's first African-American President told a largely black audience at Fayetteville State University.

"If you believe we're stronger together, then we can't elect a president who vilifies minorities, mocks Americans with disabilities, calls immigrants criminals and rapists. We can't elect a president who brags that being famous allows him to get away with something that, if you read the description, qualified as sexual assault; who calls women 'pigs,' 'dogs,' and 'slobs' and grades them on a scale of one to 10. That's not America," Obama said, referring to Trump.

The president went on to reflect on how he and wife Michelle Obama have tried to raise their daughters, Malia and Sasha.

"And we've taught them to respect everybody, that nobody is higher than you, but nobody is lower than you, and you don't lift yourself up by putting somebody else down. Those values that we've taught our children, that you're teaching your children, your grandchildren, we can't have a president who every day seems to violate those basic values," he said.

Noting that many Republicans have disavowed their party's nominee, Obama said it was "because Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified."

The latest polling shows Trump and Clinton tied in North Carolina, which most experts see as a must-win state for the Republican.

Obama narrowly won the state in 2008, but lost here in 2012, also by a slim margin.

--IANS

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