The Washington Post praised Rep. Trey Gowdy for disputing claims that the Obama administration improperly implanted a "spy" into the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2016.
"There is at least one senior Republican with enough decency to admit the obvious," the newspaper said in an editorial.
"On Fox News on Tuesday, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, forcefully rebuked President Trump's baseless and dangerous claim that the Obama administration improperly implanted a 'spy' into his 2016 campaign.
"In so doing, Mr. Gowdy underscored the cowardice of the many other Republicans who stand by while the president shreds the FBI's reputation for political gain.
"'President Trump himself in the Comey memos said if anyone connected with my campaign was working with Russia, I want you to investigate it, and it sounds to me like that is exactly what the FBI did,'" Mr. Gowdy said. 'I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got.'"
The newspaper noted Gowdy received a classified Justice Department briefing last week on the issue.
"Mr. Trump should admit that he has no evidence substantiating his repeated insistence that his campaign was spied on for partisan purposes," the Post said.
"Instead, he has doubled down, as with his previous false claim that President Barack Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped. He has tweeted about spies 'all over my campaign' and tried to establish the term 'spygate' to refer to his fake controversy."
And the Post said many Republicans have remained silent on the issue, believing public rebukes will not change his view.
"But that logic is ultimately self-defeating," the newspaper said. "Without public pushback from GOP leaders, Republicans will fall in line behind their president, and Americans will be left with the impression that Mr. Trump's relentless manipulation is a case of he-said, she-said, with merit on both sides."
The Post said it was bad for the Republican Party and the U.S. to remain silent as Trump "intentionally tarnishes the FBI and other key institutions."
"And it is bad for Republican leaders themselves, whom history will remember as moral weaklings in the face of a president who assaulted democratic institutions," the newspaper concluded."
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