FACTBOX-More Republicans hit Trump's attacks on minority congresswomen after 'send her back' chant

By Jonas Ekblom and Jan Wolfe

July 18 (Reuters) - More Republican lawmakers complained on Thursday about U.S. President Donald Trump's inflammatory attacks on four Democratic lawmakers, all minority women, after chants of "send her back" by Trump supporters at a rally targeted one of them.

More than 40 of the 250 Republicans serving in the U.S. Congress as of Thursday morning had criticized Trump over his attacks, widely condemned as racist, on the four: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

After tweeting over the weekend that the four should "go back" where they came from, even though all of them are U.S. citizens and three were born in the United States, Trump stepped up his vilification of them at a rally on Wednesday.

As Trump recounted past comments by Omar, who was born in Somalia and emigrated to the United States as a child, the crowd began chanting: “Send her back!”

Here is a list of Republicans in Congress who have voiced some level of concern about Trump's contentious remarks.

House of Representatives

Will Hurd, Texas, told CNN: "Those tweets are racist and xenophobic."

Chip Roy, Texas, tweeted: "POTUS was wrong to say any American citizen, whether in Congress or not, has any 'home' besides the U.S."

Pete Olson, Texas, tweeted that he would "urge our President immediately disavow his comments."

Ron Wright, Texas, said in a statement: "I strongly disagree with the President's tweet."

Fred Upton, Michigan, tweeted: "Frankly I'm appalled by the President's tweets. There's no excuse."

Paul Mitchell, Michigan, tweeted: "We must be better than comments like these ... These comments are beneath leaders."

Bill Huizenga, Michigan, tweeted: "Strongly disagree with what the President said in a series of tweets over the weekend."

Susan Brooks, Indiana, on Facebook and Twitter: Trump's remarks were "inappropriate and do not reflect American values."

Peter King, New York, said through a spokesperson, "The tweets were inappropriate and wrong."

John Katko, New York, tweeted: "The President's tweets were wrong," and "criticism should focus on policy."

Elise Stefanik, New York, said the "tweets were inappropriate, denigrating, and wrong."

Mike Turner, Ohio, said Trump's "tweets from this weekend were racist and he should apologize."

Troy Balderson, Ohio, said he does "not condone yesterday's tweets."

Dave Joyce, Ohio, said: "What the president tweeted this weekend was wrong."

Anthony Gonzalez, Ohio, tweeted: Trump's comments "were wildly inappropriate."

Steve Stivers, Ohio, said the tweets were "unacceptable and stand directly in the way of progress."

Steve Womack, Arkansas, said the president's remarks "aren't defensible."

Adam Kinzinger, Illinois, said: "What the president tweeted this weekend was wrong, and does nothing but further divide us." He later tweeted that the Omar chants were "ugly" and "wrong."

Don Bacon, Nebraska, said: "The president's tweets toward the four congresswomen were unacceptable."

Lloyd Smucker, Pennsylvania, said: "Racially-motivated statements or behavior is totally unacceptable."

Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin, told a newspaper the tweets were "wrong" and that the president was "mean tweeting."

Jaime Herrera Beutler, Washington, tweeted: "We can & must defend our ideas on how to improve our country w/o descending into divisive & demeaning language."

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington, said Trump was "wrong" in his tweets.

Tom Cole, Oklahoma, said he was "deeply disappointed in the president's comments ... Use of such language is inappropriate and demeans the office of the presidency."

Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota, said: "Attacking any citizen based on where they are from is never OK."

Dusty Johnson, South Dakota, called the comments "inappropriate."

Kevin McCarthy, California, the top Republican in the House, said the “send her back” chants “have no place in our party and no place in this country."

Mark Walker, North Carolina, said he "struggled" with the "send her back" chants, calling them "painful to our friends in the minority communities."

Tom Emmer, Minnesota, said of the chant that "there’s no place for that kind of talk.”

Senate

John Cornyn, Texas, told CNN: "What the president said was a mistake and an unforced error."

Joni Ernst, Iowa, told a newspaper: "Yeah I do [find Trump's comments racist]. They're American citizens."

Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania, said: "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."

Susan Collins, Maine, said the president's tweets were "way over the line, and he should take that down."

Mitt Romney, Utah, said: "The president's comments were destructive, demeaning, and disunifying."

Roy Blunt, Missouri, said: "Just because the so-called squad constantly insults and attacks the president isn't a reason to adopt their unacceptable tactics."

Tim Scott, South Carolina, said the tweets were "unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language."

Rob Portman, Ohio, told CNN: "The comments are unnecessary and wrong by their very nature."

Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, said: "There is no excuse for the president's spiteful comments. They were absolutely unacceptable and this needs to stop."

Marco Rubio, Florida, told reporters: "The president shouldn't have written that. I think it damages him."

Jerry Moran, Kansas, told a newspaper it was "inappropriate to suggest they go home to any place – they are home."

Cory Gardner, Colorado, told a Colorado radio station: "I disagree with the president. I wouldn’t have sent those tweets."

Johnny Isakson, Georgia, called the tweets "totally inappropriate" and said: "There is not a debate about whether or not it's acceptable."

John Thune, South Dakota, told a newspaper: "I think the president needs to tone down the rhetoric, stop the personal attacks." (Reporting by Jan Wolfe Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Tom Brown)