Story highlights Rep. Jack Kingston is a former congressman and a former Donald Trump adviser

Bill O'Reilly apologized Tuesday after coming under fire for his comments

(CNN) A former adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, referring to the controversy over Bill O'Reilly's remarks about Rep. Maxine Waters, said Wednesday there was a partisan double standard when it comes to making fun of someone's hair.

The Fox News host was widely criticized Tuesday when he cracked a joke about Waters' hair, calling it a "James Brown wig." The comment was seen as racist and sexist, and O'Reilly later apologized for his "dumb" joke.

"It always seems like it's OK to make fun of a conservative, but liberals, you can't touch them. They're off-limits," former Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, said on CNN's "New Day." "Making fun of Maxine Waters' hair, making fun of Donald Trump's hair -- I don't know what the difference is except one's a conservative and one's a liberal."

Kingston said O'Reilly's joke had "nothing to do with sex. It had nothing to do with race."

"Why is it when you say something about women's hair you're sexist?" he asked.

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