President Donald Trump's party is struggling to respond to his demand that liberal freshman congresswomen "go back" where they came from, with pushback from Republicans finally starting to trickle in more than 24 hours after Trump first posted the racist tweets.
But the congressional GOP is still navigating the episode gingerly — trying to break with his rhetoric while avoiding blowback from the president. It's a familiar quandary made more difficult than most of the daily controversies of the Trump presidency given the inflammatory nature of Trump's latest statements.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said he was "appalled by the president's tweets," Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) said Trump's remarks were "beneath" him and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Trump "was wrong to say any American citizen, whether in Congress or not, has any 'home' besides the U.S.," advocating for the defeat of Democrats in next year's election.
Like Roy, many Republicans made sure that any criticism of Trump also dinged his targets: Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota; Omar is the only one of the four born outside the United States.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) instructed Trump to "aim higher" on Fox News but also bashed the congresswomen as "anti-Semitic" and "anti-America."
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate up for re-election, said she disagrees "strongly" with House progressives on policy as well as their "anti-Semitic rhetoric" but urged Trump to take down his "way over the line" tweet.
"President Trump was wrong to suggest that four left-wing congresswomen should go back to where they came from. Three of the four were born in America and the citizenship of all four is as valid as mine," said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), emphasizing that he disagreed with the Democrats on "virtually every policy issue." But he said those arguments should be defeated "on the merits, not on the basis of their ancestry."
Trump defended himself before reporters Monday, saying his statements were "not at all" racist and that the congresswomen "hate our country." On Twitter, Trump also endorsed Graham's attack on the progressive congresswomen while not addressing the criticism.
Republicans in Washington largely kept their mouths shut on the controversy, and party leaders said little about Trump's remarks. Most were traveling back to Washington on Monday for House and Senate votes in the late afternoon and evening.
The episode disrupted what had been a fruitful few days for the GOP: A feuding Democratic Party still smarting over passage of a border spending bill and increased sniping among Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the four liberal Democrats under attack from Trump.
After enjoying the intraparty battles among Democrats, Republicans' fortunes turned on Sunday when the president tweeted that the congresswoman should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done."
Now the focus among both parties is back on the president, with most Republicans still quiet as of midday Monday. Retired Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) implored them to respond to Trump's "vile and offensive" comments, but most did not echo Flake's alarm.
However, Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), the only black GOP House member, did offer forceful criticism as he has often done against the president. Hurd called Trump's tweets "racist and xenophobic" and said it made it "harder" for him win over nontraditional GOP voters.
"It's behavior that's unbecoming of a president of the United States," Hurd said on CNN, adding: "Politically it's hurtful. You are having a civil war going on within the Democratic Party, and now they have all circled the wagons."
Caitlin Opyrsko contributed to this report.
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