Updated at 4:45 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4: Revised to include comments from McCaul

WASHINGTON — Texas Republicans in Congress regularly denounce China as an authoritarian, communist regime that manipulates its currency, dumps products on the U.S. market, steals trade secrets and threatens regional stability.

But after President Donald Trump publicly urged China on Thursday to investigate Joe Biden — the Democratic front-runner for 2020 — just two expressed disapproval.

"China is our strategic adversary and only cares about spreading its malign agenda around the world. Anything the Chinese Communist Party `investigates' would not be trustworthy, and the United States should not go down that road," said Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin, the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Hours earlier, Rep. Will Hurd of San Antonio, a former CIA undercover officer who is not seeking reelection, directly criticized Trump's effort.

"It's terrible. ... China is an adversary," he told CNN.

As Texas Democrats universally condemned Trump for prodding China and Ukraine to dig up dirt on a rival, none of their GOP counterparts defended his actions even as they denounced the impeachment inquiry underway in the House.

Freshman Rep. Lance Gooden of Terrell did reject Trump's suggestion that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff should be prosecuted for treason — an offense that carries execution as a punishment.

"These members of Congress are no more deserving of the charge of treason than Donald Trump is of impeachment. Republicans are trying to take back the House at the ballot box while Democrats try to take back the White House in a coup," Gooden said.

As for courting aid from China to bring down Biden, he said: "I would not consider China nor Russia to be our friends. However, I absolutely agree with the president's desire to root out corruption wherever it may be found."

The Dallas Morning News sought comments from Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and from all 23 Texas Republicans in the U.S. House regarding Trump's push for China's help to undermine Biden, and his call for a treason prosecution.

Only Gooden and McCaul responded.

1 / 3Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, leaves the Capitol after a closed doors interview about the whistleblower complaint that exposed a July phone call the president had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump pressed for an investigation of Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his family, on Oct. 4, 2019.(Jose Luis Magana / AP) 2 / 3Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, walks to a meeting with Michael Atkinson, Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, on October 4, 2019.(Win McNamee / Getty Images) 3 / 3President Donald Trump talks to journalists on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One and traveling to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 04, 2019.(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

On Friday morning, Cornyn accused Democrats of a double standard in pursuing an investigation of foreign influence in the Trump administration but deeming inquiries aimed at a Democrat to be illegitimate.

He also asserted that the Justice Department is already investigating Biden for "conflicts of interest, and possible corruption."

That came as a surprise in Washington, given there has been no indication of any U.S. investigation targeting Biden or his son, Hunter Biden. By contrast, Trump has publicly or privately pressured the governments of Ukraine, China, Australia, Italy and Britain to undertake corruption probes of his political opponents.

A Cornyn aide who asked not to be identified by name said by email: "Clarifying his tweet: he was saying that the Durham investigation could end up also looking at the Bidens."

That referred to an investigation under way by the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut, John Durham, aimed at Ukraine. There has been no indication that Biden is a target or that he has been implicated in that probe.

The point is Trump haters believe an investigation of foreign influence by a Democrat administration is just fine, but if done by a Republican administration, it is grounds for impeachment. #DoubleStandard https://t.co/qrgB6I6m0k — Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) October 4, 2019

House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry last week after revelation of a July phone call in which Trump pressed Ukraine's president for an investigation of Biden. At the time, Trump had frozen nearly $400 million in military aid Ukraine sought to deter Russian aggression.

In Dallas, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, gave a forceful defense of the inquiry on Thursday.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, a tea party Republican from Tyler, penned an op-ed published Thursday morning by Breitbart, a conservative website, alleging that Trump is the victim of a "lawless coup attempt against a duly elected president."

The op-ed went online about the time Trump made his China comments. It did not address the effort to enlist China's help in taking down Biden, and Gohmert's office ignored a request for clarification on that point.

“This is yet again an example of Democrats projecting THEIR criminal acts on President Trump. President Trump is an innocent man. It is a lawless coup attempt against a duly elected President.” @replouiegohmert @BreitbartNews — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2019

At the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party's House campaign arm, spokesman Bob Salera deflected a question about the guidance House GOP candidates are getting to address Trump's China comments.

"The socialist Democrats' obsession with pursuing impeachment instead of working on the issues Americans care about will cost them their majority," he said. "Adam Schiff is a treasonous clown who was caught red-handed lying to the American people."

All 13 Texas Democrats in Congress support the impeachment inquiry. Some are pushing outright for impeachment and removal, and they found Trump's China comments were inflammatory.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston retweeted with obvious approval a tweet from Nicholas Burns, a longtime diplomat and a Biden supporter, describing Trump's actions as "morally and legally wrong" and noting that no previous president "has asked our strongest adversary, a communist dictatorship, to investigate his major opponent."

This is a first in American history dating to 1789. An American President has asked our strongest adversary, a communist dictatorship, to investigate his major opponent. Let that sink in. It is corruption—morally and legally wrong. https://t.co/RJMADadGnI — Nicholas Burns (@RNicholasBurns) October 3, 2019

A number of Texas Republicans kept up a steady stream of criticism aimed at the impeachment inquiry.

"Plan A for impeachment was Mueller. It failed. Plan B for impeachment was the whistleblower. It's falling apart," Rep. Bill Flores of Bryan said Thursday morning on KBTX-TV, before Trump's China comments. "What we are finding is an effort from people inside the government to try to help work with Adam Schiff and some of the Democrats to try to blow the president up."

Rep. Michael Burgess of Lewisville, retweeted an assertion from Trump that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest gambit on prescription drug prices "is just camouflage for trying to win an election through impeachment."

As Republican Leader on @HouseCommerce Health Subcmte, I have put forward solutions such as H.R. 2700 to lower the cost of prescription drugs. We need to continue working with @realDonaldTrump since he has worked to move the needle in solving this real issue for Americans. https://t.co/7v92VExqE8 — Michael Burgess, MD (@michaelcburgess) October 3, 2019

At the White House on Friday, Trump insisted that his only agenda was to root out corruption. But he was stumped when a reporter asked if he could name anyone he'd asked a foreign government to investigate, other than a political opponent.

"You know, we would have to look," he said.

When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated. — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 4, 2019

The silence of Texas Republicans mirrored that of colleagues from around the country.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the homeland security chairman, was one of the few Republicans to explicitly defend Trump's outreach to China, saying: "I don't think there's anything improper about doing that."

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was one of just two GOP senators out of 53 to explicitly criticize the requests for help from China and Ukraine, calling that "wrong and appalling."

"When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated," Romney tweeted.