After a day of silence, congressional Republicans began to harshly criticize President Donald Trump for demanding that liberal freshman congresswomen “go back” where they came from — with some GOP lawmakers decrying his comments as “racist” and calling for him to apologize and remove his tweets.

The pushback on Monday marked some of the strongest condemnations Trump's received from his party, which began with a trickle and then threatened to widen as Trump escalated his attacks in remarks to reporters. Several Republicans, like Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), called Trump's comments "racist," a description rarely used against the president by members of the GOP.

Others wouldn't go that far, but Republicans were clearly downcast on Monday as they moved to respond to the president's rhetoric, which Trump refused to back away from. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) called Trump's comments "a mistake, an unforced error" but said he does not "think the president's a racist," declining to elaborate.

And Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he would vote to condemn Trump's tweets if it came before the Senate and that straying from the unifying princples of the United States "for political purpose is, in my opinion, a very grave mistake."

“A lot of people have been using the word [racist]. My own view is: That what was said and what was tweeted was destructive, was demeaning, was disunifying and frankly was very wrong," Romney said. “It’s clearly destructive and it has the potential to being dangerous as well."

Still, much of 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.

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.

"Instead of sharing how the Democratic Party’s far-left, pro-socialist policies ... are wrong for the future of our nation, the president interjected with unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language," said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the only black Republican senator. "No matter our political disagreements, aiming for the lowest common denominator will only divide our nation further.”

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. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Fox News instructed Trump to "aim higher" but also bashed the congresswomen as "anti-Semitic" and "anti-America."

And Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate up for reelection, 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. Trump also reiterated that the four women should leave the country if they don't like it here.

At first, Republicans in Washington largely kept their mouths shut on the controversy, and party leaders said little about Trump's remarks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would provide comment Tuesday at his regular weekly news conference.

Most lawmakers were traveling back to Washington on Monday for House and Senate votes in the late afternoon and evening. But a torrent of new criticism emerged after the president spoke to reporters and amped up his attacks.

"There is no excuse for the president’s spiteful comments — they were absolutely unacceptable and this needs to stop," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska.). "Instead of digging deeper into the mud with personal, vindictive insults — we must demand a higher standard of decorum and decency."

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 congresswomen 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.”

Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, the only black GOP House member, was one of the first to 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 to 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.

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine

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