Obama warns Donald Trump: "This is not a reality show"
President Obama on Friday warned that Donald Trump and voters must take the 2016 presidential election seriously when he was asked what he thinks of the presumptive GOP nominee.
"This is not entertainment, this is not a reality show. This is the contest for the presidency of the United States," Mr. Obama told reporters from The White House briefing room after making a statement on the economy, following Friday's jobs report.
The president said voters and the media should "take seriously the statements he's made in the past." Every nominee's policies, he said, must be scrutinized and examined to ensure that their budgets add up and that their proposed solutions to policy issues are plausible.
"If they take a position on international issues that could threaten war or has the potential of upending our critical relationships with other countries or need to break the financial system, that needs to be reported on," Mr. Obama said.
Asked if he thinks it's time for Bernie Sanders to step aside in the Democratic race since Hillary Clinton has the lead, the president said, "Let's let the process play itself out."
"I think everybody knows what that math is," he said. "I think Senator Sanders has done an extraordinary job raising a number of issues...At some point, there's going to be a conversation between Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders about how we move toward the convention."
Mr. Obama said that both Clinton and Sanders both have strong agreement on 95 percent of the issues. He noted that both want to raise the minimum wage, invest in infrastructure, pass comprehensive immigration reform and improve the legal immigration system.
Asked to comment on Speaker Paul Ryan's latest comments about the state of the Republican Party, the president said, "I think you have to ask Speaker Ryan about what the implications of his comments are. There is no doubt that there is a debate that's taking place inside the Republican Party about who they are and what they represent."
The president also declined to comment on a viral taco bowl tweet Trump issued Thursday.
"I have no thoughts on Mr. Trump's tweets," he said. "As a general rule, I don't pay attention to Mr. Trump's tweets."