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The No. 3 House Republican Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. -- who replaced Cheney as a member of leadership after an internal revolt last year -- told reporters Tuesday, \"The RNC has every right to take any action and the position that I have is you're ultimately held accountable to voters.\"

Asked also if she believes the violence on Jan. 6 was \"legitimate political discourse,\" Stefanik condemned the violence but proceeded to equate the violence of Jan. 6 to the \"violence of 2020\" -- seemingly a reference to the national protests that took place following George Floyd's murder.

But while House Republicans and close allies of Trump have defended the resolution, several members of Senate Republican leadership sought to distance themselves from it, with a number refuting the \"legitimate political discourse\" description.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas -- a key ally of McConnell -- told reporters Monday that the language in the resolution wasn't appropriate.

\"I just I think being accurate is really important, particularly when you are talking about something that sensitive, and I just think it was not an accurate description,\" Cornyn said.

\"PHOTO:
Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell talks to Senator John Cornyn in a hallway on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., April 29, 2021.
>

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also on the Hill Monday for an evening leadership meeting with McConnell, reacted as if the RNC's action is wholly apart from him and the Senate GOP.

\"I mean it's what they want to say. I'm clear what I believe has been,\" said Scott, who has condemned rioters on Jan. 6 as \"disgraceful and un-American.\"

But Florida's other senator, Sen. Marco Rubio, fell in line with messaging of the RNC and former President Donald Trump, condemning the Jan. 6 committee, instead, on CBS' \"Face the Nation\" Sunday as \"a partisan scam.\"

Other senators have wiggled around taking a clear stance.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who announced last month he is not running for reelection to the Senate, told reporters Monday, \"Everybody has the right to peacefully protest, but they don't have the right to be violent. Of course, there was protest that day that was not violent, but there was also a terrible violent and criminal part of it.\"

Pressed on whether the RNC resolution and specific language was appropriate, he said, \"I haven't read what they said, but I don't think it's appropriate to call violent and criminal activity.\"

Senate GOP Whip John Thune, R-S.D., up for reelection this year and often a target of former President Donald Trump -- was pressed repeatedly on whether he supports the censure resolution, but demurred, saying the focus, instead, should \"be forward, not backward.\"

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., echoed the sentiment but in a more critical tone, saying, \"We've got a lot of issues that we should be focusing on besides censuring two members of Congress because they have a different opinion.\"

\"PHOTO:
Leah Millis/Reuters, FILE
PHOTO: A mob of Trump supporters climb through a window they broke during the seige of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.
>

The RNC has come under intense questioning since Friday about the inclusion of the \"legitimate political discourse\" phrase in its censure resolution to Cheney and Kinzinger.

Asked Friday to elaborate on the description, the RNC official said the party is talking about \"legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.\"

\"Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,\" McDaniel said in a statement. \"They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol. That's why Republican National Committee members and myself overwhelmingly support this resolution.\"

McDaniel's statement notably attempted to clarify the resolution's \"legitimate political discourse\" language, adding the words, \"that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol,\" though that additional phrasing did not appear in the resolution that was passed Friday.

\"PHOTO:
Rick Bowmer/AP
PHOTO: Ronna McDaniel, the GOP chairwoman, speaks during the Republican National Committee winter meeting, Feb. 4, 2022, in Salt Lake City.
>

Senate and House Democrats have come out swinging against the RNC's decision.

\"Ronna McDaniel should be ashamed of herself,\" said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries told reporters during a press conference Tuesday. \"What makes it worse is that our Republican colleagues here in the Capitol refuse to denounce it because they are a part of the cult, as well.\"

Republican Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, meanwhile, sought to pivot away from the issue on ABC \"This Week\" when pressed by co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday, condemning the violence of Jan. 6 but unwilling to denounce the resolution.

\"My understanding is [the statement] pertains to the legitimate protesters that I saw that day,\" McCaul said.

Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who voted against both of Trump's impeachments, weighed in over the weekend to say that what transpired on Jan. 6 \"was criminal, un-American, and cannot be considered legitimate protest.\"

A handful of the seven Senate Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for \"incitement of insurrection\" last year were also among the first to condemn the RNC language.

\"What happened on January 6, 2021 was an effort to overturn a lawful election resulting in violence and destruction at the Capitol. We must not legitimize those actions which resulted in loss of life and we must learn from that horrible event so history does not repeat itself,\" Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, tweeted.

Hers followed Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, writing Friday morning that \"shame\" falls on the party, that his niece, McDaniel, currently presides over.

\"Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost,\" Romney tweeted.

And Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also reacted with apparent shock, tweeting, \"The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th - HUH?\"

\"PHOTO:
J. Scott Applewhite/AP, FILE
PHOTO: Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger attend a meeting of the House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Oct. 19, 2021.
>

The move to censure Cheney and Kinzinger marks the first time the national RNC has had a formal censure for an incumbent member of Congress backed by its members.

The day before the RNC vote, Kinzinger tweeted has \"no regrets about my decision to uphold my oath of office and defend the Constitution.

Kinzinger, who is not running for reelection but has said his political career is not over, said in a statement that GOP leadership had allowed \"conspiracies and toxic tribalism\" to cloud \"their ability to see clear-eyed.\"

\"I've been a member of the Republican Party long before Donald Trump entered the field,\" Kinzinger said in a statement Thursday night. \"Rather than focus their efforts on how to help the American people, my fellow Republicans have chosen to censure two lifelong Members of their party for simply upholding their oaths of office.\"

Cheney also spoke to her identity as a \"constitutional conservative\" in a statement and said, \"I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump.\"

ABC News' Ben Siegel contributed to this report.

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