BBC NEWS
President Barack Obama has blasted Donald Trump's recent remarks about women, saying they would be intolerable even for someone applying for a job at a 7-Eleven convenience store.
At a rally supporting Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama also urged senior Republicans to formally withdraw their endorsement of Mr Trump as presidential candidate. Many top Republicans have distanced themselves from Mr Trump over a video in which he boasts of groping women.
Mr Trump accused them of disloyalty.
He was particularly scathing about House Speaker Paul Ryan whom he described as a "weak and ineffective" leader. Addressing a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday evening, Mr Obama referred to Mr Trump's crude remarks about women, saying: "Now you find a situation in which the guy says stuff that nobody would find tolerable if they were applying for a job at 7-Eleven."
He said: "You don't have to be a husband or a father to say that's not right. You just have to be a decent human being." Mr Obama questioned how senior Republican politicians could still want Mr Trump to be president. "The fact is that now you've got people saying: 'We strongly disagree, we really disapprove... but we're still endorsing him.' They still think he should be president, that doesn't make sense to me," he told the crowd.
AFP
Mr Obama was interrupted several times by anti-Clinton campaigners but seemed unfazed, saying: "This is democracy at work. This is great."
The hecklers were escorted from the venue by security officials.
At the scene: Adam McIlrick, BBC News, Greensboro
Thousands waited for more than six hours to hear Barack Obama speak in what could very well be his last visit to the battleground state as president.
The sun was out, and so were the hecklers.
The first two interrupted the president early in his address. Mr Obama, seemingly unfazed by it all, waited for the crowd to finish their booing before telling the hecklers with a wry grin to "get their own rally".
It wasn't long before Mr Obama was interrupted again. This time, the heckler was further back in the crowd. The man walked straight past us as he left, wearing a T-shirt declaring "Hillary for prison 2016".
In the third and final interruption, a man entered the cordoned-off area, screamed something at the president and tore a Clinton-Kaine campaign sign in two.
The man was escorted away and President Obama carried on smoothly, handling it all with good humour. The Greensboro crowd seemed to appreciate the laugh, in a campaign that's turned decidedly nasty.
In another development, Hillary Clinton's Campaign Chairman John Podesta has said that Russia was behind an apparent hacking of his emails and may have been colluding with the Trump campaign.
He said on Tuesday that the FBI was investigating the hacking of the emails that were published by WikiLeaks.
Election date gaffe
The 2005 video released on Friday revealed Mr Trump describing how he had sought to have sex with a married woman and making other sexually aggressive comments about women.
AP
Nearly half of the 331 incumbent Republican senators, House members and governors have condemned the lewd remarks and about 10% have called for Mr Trump to drop out of the race, according to Reuters news agency.
On Monday, Mr Ryan said he would not defend Mr Trump over the remarks.
He told fellow House Republicans he would instead focus on congressional elections to ensure Republicans could maintain legislative control.
Mr Trump fired back in a string of tweets, saying the "shackles" had been removed, allowing him to "fight for America the way I want to". He said he neither wanted nor needed Mr Ryan's support.
48%
Hillary Clinton
44%
Donald Trump
Mr Trump said "disloyal" Republicans "come at you from all sides. They don't know how to win - I will teach them!"
He attacked Senator John McCain, who has denounced Mr Trump's conduct and faces a close re-election battle in Arizona, as "foul-mouthed".
Despite a widening divide within the Republican Party, some members insist they are sticking by Mr Trump.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he was "really disturbed" by Mr Trump's comments about women but still planned to support him, saying the election was "about bigger issues than that".
Texas Senator and former rival Ted Cruz also said he would still cast his ballot for Mr Trump, telling a Texas TV station that Mrs Clinton was an "absolute disaster".
Mr Trump delivered a gaffe while addressing supporters in Florida on Tuesday, telling them to go out and vote on the wrong date.
ABC News footage showed him saying: "Go and register. Make sure you get out and vote, November 28." The election is on 8 November.
A recent PRRI/Atlantic poll suggested Mrs Clinton holds a 49-38 lead over her opponent.
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