“This kind of language is unbecoming of a President of the United States,” Flake, an Arizona Republican, wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “There is no excuse for it, and Republicans should not be okay with it.”

Trump’s reference on Tuesday morning to Manigault Newman as a “crazed, crying lowlife” and a “dog” is at best a sharp departure from the language typically employed by Presidents and at worst a reference that traffics in sexual and racial imagery. Trump has long denied being racist and has dismissed a claim made by Manigault Newman that he used a racial slur on the set of “The Apprentice.” He’s also invoked “dog” to insult non-African-Americans — including Mitt Romney and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.