But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said she disagrees with Trump’s threat to send in the military if state governments don’t stop the riots. Trump made the pledge during a Rose Garden announcement on Monday evening.

“What we are seeing is the expression of every individual who has ever felt discriminated, oppressed, violated, or threatened,” Murkowski said. “We are seeing that surface around the country. Tone is as important as any words that are said, and further acts of force don’t set the right tone.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who generally supports the president, would neither praise nor criticize Trump’s leadership since the rioting, looting, and protests started last week following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.

“I’m not going to critique other people’s performances,” McConnell said Tuesday.

Democrats have been unambiguous in their criticism of Trump.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, introduced a House-Senate resolution condemning Trump for ordering police to clear the park across the street from the White House.

Trump crossed through the park to visit St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was set on fire on Sunday night by rioters.

Democrats accused him of clearing out a park full of peaceful protesters for a photo op in front of the church, although police later said the protesters had been hurling bottles and other objects at the police and were climbing onto the burned church structure.

They accused him of acting like a dictator and violating the Constitution.

“The president’s relentless need to make a weak man feel strong led him to order federal law enforcement officers to gas peacefully assembled Americans so he could sneak his way to a church photo op,” Schumer said Tuesday. “After the gas came the horses, a modern-day cavalry tasked with clearing the battlefield. The purpose? So President Trump could wave a Bible — not read a Bible, not even his Bible — as a prop.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and a frequent critic of Trump, said he understood the protesters and why they were hurting.

“I understand people who are upset and who are protesting and also understand the many, many people who are hurting,” Romney said.

Romney declined to comment on Trump’s church visit or the police actions to clear out the park that preceded it.

“I didn’t see that,” Romney said. “I’m not going to talk about his movements, personally.”

Several Republicans said they did not see the park incident or had read differing accounts of what happened.

“I’ve heard conflicting reports myself. Was it tear gas or just smoke that was deployed?” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said. “I think it’s really important we make a bright-line distinction between those who are peaceably assembled. That is very different than nighttime looting and rioting.”

Four police officers were shot in St. Louis on Monday night, Hawley said when asked about Trump’s threat to use the military.

“That line has got to be drawn very clearly, and we have to prevent our cities and towns from burning and being looted,” Hawley said. “We don’t want uniformed officers on our streets. Of course we don’t, but we are going to have to take steps to, in a lawful way, bring this violence under control, to stop it.”