As Republicans Rush to Condemn Steve King, Some Ask: Why Not Trump? – The New York Times

“I wish he wouldn’t tweet as much,” Mr. Thune told reporters, adding, “That’s obviously a very sensitive part of our state’s history. So yeah, I wish he’d stay away from it.”

But generally, elected Republicans have let the president slide.

“They know on some level that their defense of Trump is morally unsupportable, and so when they get a chance to speak out against Steve King, who doesn’t have any power over them and doesn’t pose a threat to them, a lot of them are falling over themselves to condemn him,” said Peter Wehner, who advised President George W. Bush on domestic policy. “But you can’t condemn Steve King and not condemn Donald Trump and pretend that you’re doing the right moral and ethical thing.”

In Mr. King, Republicans seem happy to have found an opportunity to condemn racism without attacking the president. After taking a beating in the 2018 midterm elections — which produced a freshman Republican class that is almost entirely white and male and boosted the share of white men in the House Republican Conference to 90 percent — Republicans are also well aware that the party needs to overhaul its image.

But Mr. Trump’s critics within the party say that no overhaul can be complete without denouncing the president.

Michael Gerson, who was the top speechwriter for Mr. Bush, published an opinion article in The Washington Post this week that carried the headline, “Republicans Need to Condemn Trump’s Brazen Bigotry.”

Mr. Wehner agreed: “It’s a massive inconsistency and a sign of cowardice and intimidation on the part of Republicans — and I think also a sign of a guilty conscience.”

After Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican in the House, said Tuesday on television that Mr. King’s comment’s were “absolutely abhorrent” and “racist,” Mr. Wehner took to Twitter: “I wonder if Liz Cheney would say the same thing about Donald Trump?” he wrote.