Obama: Imagine If I Said The Things Donald Trump Says

President Barack Obama railed against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s racist, sexist, xenophobic rhetoric in an interview with Al Sharpton that aired Friday on MSNBC.

Obama told Sharpton he was alarmed that Trump doesn’t “immediately disown” racist groups who have backed his candidacy, like the KKK. Obama said Trump’s hesitancy to disown those groups “sends signals that he is OK with discrimination against minorities.”

“These are things that he says on an ongoing basis. Comments that would have once been considered completely disqualifying by a Democratic or Republican candidate,” Obama said. “And imagine if I, when I had been running, had said one-tenth of the things that Donald Trump has said. People would have immediately said, ‘That person’s not qualified to be president.’ If [Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary Clinton right now said just a fraction of the things Mr. Trump said, people would be outraged and Republicans would say, ‘You can’t have that person serving.’”

Obama clarified that he’s not just worried about Trump’s attitude toward minorities.

“It’s his lack of respect for the Constitution,” Obama said.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.