Donald Trump blasts President Obama's appearance with Hillary Clinton: 'It's a carnival act'
For over a half an hour during his speech to a crowd in North Carolina Tuesday evening, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee made almost no mention of the FBI's scathing condemnation of Clinton's use of multiple private email servers during her time as secretary of state.
Instead, Trump repeatedly slammed Obama's appearance with Clinton on the campaign trail.
"We have a person in the White House that's having a lot of fun. I watched him today, it's like a carnival act," Trump said.
He added: "He should be home working on ISIS, where the threat is getting worse and worse, he should be working on trade, he should be working on the borders."
The real-estate magnate mocked Obama's use of Air Force One and his golfing trips in Hawaii.
"This guy - he gets on this plane. Flies to Hawaii. He's there for a long time. Golf, golf, golf, golf. More, more. Learning how to chip, learning how to hit the drive, learning how to putt," Trump said.
He added: "ISIS is laughing at us, they're chopping off heads, they're drowning us in steel cages, and he's out there playing golf."
Trump's comments came just a few hours after Obama offered another brutal critique of Trump's policy prescriptions as well as his qualifications to be president given Trump's penchant for speaking off-the-cuff.
"This isn't a reality show. This is reality. And being president of the United States means you have to deal with reality. When a crisis hits, you can't just walk off the set. You can't fire the scriptwriter. You can't be reckless. You don't have the luxury of just saying what's in your head. You've gotta actually do your homework," Obama said.
Trump didn't dedicate all of Tuesday's speech to Obama.
After briefly referencing the FBI's announcement about Clinton's email conduct, Trump finally returned to the subject after half an hour.
The businessman called the FBI's recommendation not to press criminal charges against Clinton for sending classified information over unprotected channels a "tragedy," and claimed - contrary to the FBI's findings - that Clinton deliberately attempted to mislead investigators.
"We're talking about the safety of our people. The laws are very explicit. Stupidity is not a reason you're going to be innocent," Trump said. "And I don't happen to believe that it was stupidity."
He added: "Today is the best example that our system is rigged. Hillary Clinton put the entire country in danger."
Trump repeatedly mocked former President Bill Clinton's meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, asserting that there's no way the two leaders could have talked for over a half an hour about golf and their grandkids, as both Lynch and Clinton claimed.
"That would take about thirty seconds. I'm serious How long can you talk?" Trump said, before launching into an impression of Clinton.
"Give the grandchildren two minutes, give the golf three-and-a-half minutes. That's a lot of time to be sitting there twiddling your thumbs."