Republican lawmakers have long cut profiles in cowardice during the Trump presidency, but never before have the consequences of their leadership vacuum been as vivid.
GOP legislators professed dismay when a crowd at President Trump's North Carolina rally, riled by his attacks on a member of Congress who emigrated from Africa as a child, broke into a racist chant of "Send her back!"
"Not acceptable," proclaimed Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., likewise declared there is "no place in our party and no place in this country" for such words.