Few elected Republicans were willing to call out President Donald Trump's obviously racist tweets over the weekend. The GOP largely either welcomes, is indifferent toward, or is grudgingly accepting of the president's bigoted attacks on Democratic lawmakers of color, of whom the majority are American-born, that Trump said should "go back and fix" their counties.
But a handful of Republicans have started to speak out — and Rep. Mike Turner on Monday afternoon was the most forthright and direct about the president's behavior, accurately labeling it "racist":
It was notable because he directly called Trump's comments racist, a label the party is generally extremely reluctant to apply to its own members' actions. But it also stood out from some of the critical comments of Turner's party allies because the statement was unequivocal. While GOP lawmakers like Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) offered rebukes of Trump for his comments, they also loaded their statements with criticisms of the Democrats in question, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Minnesota's Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Scott, the only black Republican senator, called Trump's remarks "unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language" — using a euphemism for "racism." But he couched this criticism with much more extensive attacks on the Democratic Party, saying it is "embroiled in racial controversy," that it is "far left, pro-socialist," adding that some of its members use "hateful language" toward "law enforcement and Jews," and claiming that it is "wrong for the future of our nation."
All of this was a clear way of signaling that, even while he may offer toned-down criticism of the president, it's the Democrats who are the real enemy.