Updated: Revised at 4:20 p.m. with O'Rourke comments and at 8 p.m. to reflect that Cruz called King after this report was published.

MIDLAND -- Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday he is disappointed that his ally, Iowa Congressman Steve King, used divisive rhetoric that their own party's campaign arm called racist, but he declined to specifically condemn King himself.

"It's disappointing. He's saying and doing things that are dividing us, that are pulling us apart. We need to be finding ways to come together. This is a very polarized time and I do think tone and rhetoric matter. The way you address issues matter," Cruz said Wednesday when asked about the uproar after a campaign rally in Midland.

King endorsed Cruz in the 2016 GOP primaries -- a key endorsement in Iowa, whose voters are the first to narrow the presidential field. Cruz later named him national co-chair of his presidential bid.

On Tuesday, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, took the extraordinary step of publicly condemning King and calling him a racist.

"Congressman Steve King's recent comments, actions, and retweets are completely inappropriate," Stivers tweeted on Tuesday. "We must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms, and I strongly condemn this behavior."

Earlier this month, King endorsed a white nationalist running for mayor of Toronto.

In August, King gave an interview to a far-right Austrian propaganda site in which he promoted the idea of white European superiority and tied Democratic megadonor George Soros to the "Great Replacement" -- a conspiracy theory describing a push to replace white Europeans with minorities.

Asked specifically about those actions, Cruz said: "I don't know everything he's done and said. I don't think we should be saying things that are divisive."

Hours after The News published those comments, King said the senator called him to express support. Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told Bloomberg that it was "a personal call, and Senator Cruz told him the same thing he said to reporters today."

Stumping in Amarillo on Wednesday night, Cruz ignored a question about whether he had in fact reassured King about his ongoing support in their call. Cruz aides have not disputed King's claim.

In 2013, King infamously stated that some undocumented immigrants have "calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert."

Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso Democrat challenging Cruz, denounced King's "hateful, vile rhetoric" during a campaign stop in Austin on Wednesday.

"Whether it's the president describing Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals or Steve King asking us to look at the calves of Dreamers -- he said they were the size of cantaloupes from bringing drug loads across -- this vilification, demonization of immigrants, especially of Dreamers, is un-American," he told reporters.

1 / 3 Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Steve King spoke with reporters outside the Capitol Hill Club in 2015. (2015 File Photo / Staff) 2 / 3Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz (L) shares a laugh with US Congressmen Steve King, R-Iowa (C) and Louie Gohmert (R), R-Texas, at the North Star Lounge during a campaign stop in Fenton, Iowa, January 29, 2016, ahead of the Iowa Caucus.(JIM WATSON / Getty Images) 3 / 3Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, left, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pose in front of pheasants following a pheasant hunt in Akron, Iowa, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013.(Nati Harnik / AP)

Congressman Steve King’s recent comments, actions, and retweets are completely inappropriate. We must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms, and I strongly condemn this behavior. — Steve Stivers (@RepSteveStivers) October 30, 2018

King, a hardliner on illegal immigration, shot back that Stivers is part of the party's "establishment."

"These attacks are orchestrated by nasty, desperate, and dishonest fake media. Their ultimate goal is to flip the House and impeach Donald Trump. Establishment Never Trumpers are complicit," he tweeted.

A recent poll shows King leading by a narrow 1 percentage point, and his Democratic challenger lauded Stivers after the National Republican Congressional Committee, the entity charged with protecting the GOP majority in the House, condemned King.

Last week I issued a challenge for at least one Republican elected official to condemn @SteveKingIA's recent behavior. I applaud @RepSteveStivers, Chair of the NRCC. Respect. #CountryOverParty https://t.co/KCKTBlEDhr — J.D. Scholten (@JDScholten) October 30, 2018

For Stivers and others, dismay with King has long simmered.

King has called President Barack Obama "very, very urban," and said that "white people" don't get enough credit for building civilization -- comments seen by groups that track hate speech as dog whistles sure to please white supremacists.

In June, he retweeted a prominent British neo-Nazi's comment that Europe is "waking up" to the threat of immigrants, adding, "Will America... in time?"

Europe is waking up...Will America...in time? https://t.co/GqZ3E1lCyh — Steve King (@SteveKingIA) June 12, 2018

In Midland, where more than 300 local Republicans came out to hear Cruz campaign in an airplane hangar, the local congressman, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, said that "Steve has always been out there on the edge."

He likewise said he wasn't familiar with everything King has said or written but added: "I would not call him a racist or white supremacist. He loves this country."

Austin Bureau Chief Robert T. Garrett contributed from Austin.