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Obama tells Republicans to drop Trump

The president's remarks come as establishment Republicans such as Sen. John McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan are distancing themselves from the GOP nominee.
Barack Obama makes remarks during the 2016 Democratic National Convention (Photo by REX/Shutterstock)

If any Republican leaders are feeling deep and painful regret over endorsing Donald Trump as the GOP's presidential nominee, President Barack Obama is offering them a do-over.

"There has to be a point at which you say, this is not somebody I can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party," Obama said during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday.

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The President's remarks come as establishment Republicans such as Sen. John McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan are distancing themselves from Trump amid his week long attack on a bereaved military family who spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

"It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party," McCain said in a statement on Friday, defending Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son Humayun Khan died in combat in Iraq. "While our Party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us."

Paul Ryan was even less confrontational in his statement: "Many Muslim Americans have served valiantly in our military, and made the ultimate sacrifice. Captain Khan was one such brave example. His sacrifice — and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan — should always be honored. Period."

On Tuesday, Donald Trump told an audience at a rally in Virginia that he received a Purple Heart medal from retired lieutenant colonel, Louis Dorfman. Trump said Lt. Col. Dorfman gave it to him to show his support for the candidate. NBC later reported that the Purple Heart medal — awarded to members of the US military who are wounded or killed while on duty — was a copy of his.

"And I said 'Man, that's like big stuff. I always wanted to get the Purple Heart … This was much easier," Trump said.

Related: Donald Trump's feud with the family of a slain Muslim-American soldier is not going well

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Obama appears to want more from his colleagues across the aisle.

"The question they have to ask themselves is: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?" he asked. "The fact that that has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow."

Ryan in particular has served as the poster boy this election season for Republicans resigned to, but not ready for, a Trump nomination.

Back in May, he said that Trump's positions on banning Muslims from the country were "not what this country stands for." In the same month he only broke his silence on the question to say he was "not ready" to endorse Trump.

Eventually, in a newspaper column rather than a televised appearance with the candidate, Ryan made the jump. He joined other one time skeptics like Scott Walker and Chris Christie onstage at the RNC praising Trump as the only thing to stop Hillary Clinton.

But unlike Christie and Walker, Ryan's voice did not exactly carry the zeal of a convert. It's overwhelmingly unlikely he'll un-endorse Trump, least of all because Obama suggested it. But he might not have minded hearing someone float the idea out loud.

Rachel Browne contributed to this report

Follow Brendan James on Twitter: @deep_beige