COLUMBUS: President Barack Obama insisted Thursday that Republicans who are disavowing Donald Trump deserve no credit for their sudden change of heart after having “stood by silently” for so long. He accused Republicans of filling a “swamp of crazy” by allowing unfounded and hate-filled rhetoric to go unchallenged within the party for years.
Campaigning for Democrats in Ohio, Obama said most Republicans aren’t like Trump and “know better,” but hadn’t renounced the kind of rhetoric Trump embraces out of deference to the Republican base.
He said it was GOP complacency that led the party to nominate a candidate who he said brags and jokes about sexually assaulting women. “You can’t wait until that finally happens and then say, ‘That’s too much, that’s enough,” he said.