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"You start whining before the game's even over?" Obama said during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, adding that Trump's claim is "not based on facts."

Trump and his surrogates have increasingly claimed the US election system is "rigged," coming after two lackluster debate performances and a drop in poll numbers nationally and in key swing states. He's urged his supporters to monitor polling sites for potentially ineligible voters attempting to cast ballots.

The rhetoric has been brushed off even by Republican governors, who say there are no signs of corruption in their states' voting systems.

Obama echoed those sentiments Tuesday, saying there's "no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections."

And he claimed Trump's warnings could abrade faith in the US political system.

"One way of weakening America and making it less great is if you start betraying those basic American traditions that have been bipartisan and have helped to hold together this Democracy now for well over two centuries," Obama said.

He derided Trump's remarks as reflective of an unpresidential attitude, declaring again that the Republican nominee's temperament was disqualifying.

"It doesn't really show the kind of leadership and toughness that you'd want out of a president. You start whining before the game's even over? If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else? Then you don't have what it takes to be in this job," Obama said.

And he said the warnings of a "rigged election" are entirely unprecedented in modern American political history.

"I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place. It's unprecedented," Obama said alongside Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Trump has at times embraced the label of "whiner," telling CNN in an interview last year, he is "the most fabulous whiner."

It was Obama's latest salvo in what's become a bitterly negative campaign against Trump. At the beginning of Tuesday's news conference, Obama said he planned to be "a little more subdued" in his discussion of Trump, given the diplomatic setting just outside the Oval Office.

And while he didn't slip into his campaign cadences, he unleashed a harsh rebuke of the Republican candidate, describing his behavior as "unprecedented" on multiple fronts.

Obama called Trump's "flattery" of Russian President Vladimir Putin "out of step" with US norms, and called out Republicans who support their nominee as hypocritical.

"You'll have to explain to me how it is that some of the same leaders in the Republican Party who were constantly haranguing us for even talking to the Russians and who consistently took the most hawkish approaches to Russia, including Mr. Trump's selection for vice president, now reconcile their endorsement of Mr. Trump with their previous views," he said.

But he reserved his harshest rhetoric for Trump's assertions about the upcoming election.

"I'd advise Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes," Obama said. "And if he got the most votes, then it would be my expectation of Hillary Clinton to offer a gracious concession speech and pledge to work with him in order to make sure that the American people benefit from an effective government, and it would be my job to welcome Mr. Trump, regardless of what he said about me, or my differences with him on my opinions, and escort him over to the Capitol, in which there would about peaceful transfer of power."

"That's what Americans do," Obama said.

CNN's Julia Manchester and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.

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In an op-ed published Tuesday on CNN, Obama set a "clear goal" to send humans to Mars by the 2030s and to have them return to Earth safely, "with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time."

"Someday, I hope to hoist my own grandchildren onto my shoulders. We'll still look to the stars in wonder, as humans have since the beginning of time," Obama wrote. "But instead of eagerly awaiting the return of our intrepid explorers, we'll know that because of the choices we make now, they've gone to space not just to visit, but to stay -- and in doing so, to make our lives better here on Earth."

Achieving the goal, Obama added, will "require continued cooperation between government and private innovators" -- a collaboration that will begin in the coming years when companies send astronauts to the International Space Station.

To that end, Obama announced that the government is "working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space."

The White House in a joint blog post with NASA said that seven companies have received awards to develop habitation systems. And this fall, NASA will provide companies with the opportunity to add modules and other capabilities to the International Space Station.

Obama who's in the final months of his eight-year presidency is also looking to set in motion plans, which could pan out to be a key part of his legacy.

"I expect to be around to see it," Obama said in the speech.

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Obama continues to shorten sentences for people with nonviolent drug offenses. Newslook

President Obama(Photo: Jorge Guerrero, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON President Obama commuted the sentences of another 102federal prison inmates Thursday, continuing his move to dramatically reduce the number of inmates in prison for drug crimes.

"The vast majority of todays grants were for individuals serving unduly harsh sentences for drug-related crimes under outdated sentencing laws," White House counsel Neil Eggleston said in a statement. "With todays grants, the President has commuted 774 sentences, more than the previous 11 presidents combined. With a total of 590 commutations this year, President Obama has now commuted the sentences of more individuals in one year than in any other single year in our nations history."

Thursday's announcement follows a record-breaking month in August, when Obama commuted the sentences of 325 inmates.

What started as a relatively simply move to reduce the sentences of those convicted of drug crimes has turned into a moveto grant commutations to inmates convicted of more serious crimes. That has meant commutingsentences without immediately releasing the inmates in what are known as "term" commutations, as opposed to the more common "time served" commutations. They represent a remarkable departure from recentpast practice. Unlike a full pardon, commutations shorten sentences but leave other consequences of the conviction in place.

A USA TODAY analysis of Obama's 673 commutations through August showeda marked change in strategy on his clemency initiative, one of the key criminal justice reform efforts of his presidency.

USA TODAY

For Obama, a shift in clemency strategy

Before August, almost all of the inmates whose sentences were commuted were released within four months, enough time for the Bureau of Prisons to arrange for court-supervised monitoring and other re-entry programs.But the last two rounds of commutations granted in August showed that39% came with a year or more left to serve on the sentence.

Obama has also commuted the sentences of even more serious offenders. Before August, 13% of inmates receiving clemency had used a firearm in the offense. For those granted presidential mercy in August, it was 22%. On Thursday, 11 of the 102 commutations involved sentences involving a firearm.

In Thursday's announcement, 21 inmates were scheduled to be released from prison on Feb. 3, 2017. The rest will be released later in 2017 or years in the future, which is a continuation of the trend toward term resentencing.

Contributing: Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

The 102 inmates whose sentences were commuted

USA TODAY

Obama says he's proud to have 'reinvigorated' long-neglected clemency power

USA TODAY

With 111 more commutations, Obama has nearly doubled his total in one month

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Obama commutes XX more sentences

The survey results come as an increasing number say discrimination against blacks is a very serious problem and concerns about bias in the criminal justice system remain widespread.

Overall, 54% say relations between blacks and whites have gotten worse since Obama became president, including 57% of whites and 40% of blacks. That's up sharply compared with last June, when 43% said things had gotten worse shortly after a racially motivated shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

A similar share, 52%, say the criminal justice system in the US favors whites over blacks, while 36% say it treats blacks and whites equally, down 6 points since February 2015.

About three-quarters of blacks and one-half of whites feel the system favors whites. Whites are sharply split by education level on this question, with 62% of whites who hold college degrees saying the system favors whites over blacks vs. just 42% among whites who do not have college degrees. And urbanites are more apt to say the system is discriminatory than are suburban or rural Americans: 62% who live in urban areas say so, above the 53% of suburbanites and 38% of rural residents who say the same.

The share describing discrimination against blacks generally as a very serious problem has inched up from 37% last June to 42% now, a high point during Obama's time in office. Much of the recent shift comes among whites, 34% of whom now see it as a very serious problem, up from 28% last June. Among blacks, that figure has softened somewhat and remains starkly higher than the share among whites, 80% said it was a very serious problem in June 2015 and 73% say so now.

Few Americans see their local police as prejudiced against blacks, but there are sharp differences by race and between those who live in urban areas vs. rural ones.

Nationwide, 18% say at least some of their local police are prejudiced against blacks. That climbs to 43% among blacks, and dips to 13% among whites. Among urbanites, 25% see at least some of their local police as prejudiced vs. just 10% among those who live in rural areas.

In general, Americans have broadly favorable opinions of their local police, 86% view them favorably, 10% unfavorably, with blacks and other non-whites a bit less likely to hold a favorable opinion (91% of whites have a favorable view, 77% of all non-whites, and 69% of blacks feel the same).

The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged after several incidents in the last few years in which unarmed black people were harmed or killed at the hands of police, holds a narrowly net-positive favorability rating: 44% view it favorably, 40% unfavorably, and 16% have never heard of the movement or don't know how they feel about it.

Awareness of the movement has grown since last summer, when 33% had no opinion or had never heard of it.

Among blacks, 78% have a favorable view of the movement, higher than the 38% of whites who feel the same. There's a sharp divide among whites by education level in perceptions of Black Lives Matter, with 50% of whites who hold college degrees saying they see it favorably vs. 32% among whites without college degrees.

Two-thirds of adults say that peaceful protests are justified in response to those recent incidents where blacks where harmed or killed by police, and 14% overall, including about one-quarter of blacks, consider violent protests in response justified.

In findings from the same poll released earlier this week, voters were about evenly split between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on who would do a better job handling the criminal justice system. About 48% said Clinton would do the better job and 46% said they preferred Trump's approach.

Among whites, Trump held an edge 49% to 42% while blacks favored Clinton's approach 85% to 11%. Overall, Clinton held a wide advantage on improving the lives of racial minorities, 60% to 32% who thought Trump would be better on that score.

The CNN/ORC Poll was conducted by telephone September 28 through October 2 among a random national sample of 1,501 adults, including 1,086 non-Hispanic whites and 140 non-Hispanic blacks. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for results among the full sample, 3 points for results among whites and 8.5 points for results among blacks.

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Family members walk behind Peres' coffin at the start of his funeral procession on September 30.

The flag-draped coffin arrives at Mount Herzl, where several eulogies were given by politicians and family.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at Peres' funeral. He said that Peres had "lived a life of purpose. ... He was a great man of Israel, he was a great man of the world."

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin touches Peres' coffin. In his tribute, Rivlin said that Peres was "the man of whom we thought time could never stop."

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke of his great friendship with Peres: "He started off life as Israel's brightest student, became its best teacher, and ended up its biggest dreamer."

Clinton touches Peres' coffin. Clinton spoke fondly of Peres, adding in his eulogy: "He knew exactly what he was doing in being overly optimistic. ... He never gave up on anybody, I mean anybody."

US President Barack Obama stands alongside Netanyahu as both men pay their respects.

Obama also gave a eulogy. He commented on Peres' desire for peace. "Out of the hardships of the diaspora, he found room in his heart for others who suffered," Obama said.

Obama touches Peres' coffin after speaking at the funeral.

Israeli soldiers hold wreaths before making their way to the graveside.

Prince Charles represents the British monarchy at the ceremony.

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson attends the funeral. Former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron were also in attendance.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Jerusalem to offer his respects.

The funeral included world leaders and dignitaries from 70 countries.

Members of the Knesset Guard salute around the grave.

Mourners gather beside the grave.

A portrait of Peres is displayed at the Knesset plaza in Jerusalem, where his body laid in state on Thursday, September 29.

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