Had a Republican called Emperor Zero “illegitimate”, the media would shart themselves.
They did shart themselves -- they created (or merely regurgitated) the term "birthers" and lumped it under "conspiracy theory".
The other members of the Republican Party would have rained thunder and destruction on him/ her before the Democrat Party or the media could. I believe that during a SOTU speech by obama a Republican Congressman from, I think, South Carolina said”You lie”. The Republicans almost lynched him on the spot. One does not speak those words and in that tone to their god.