It's a mistake to take any conservative at face value, to assume any argument is in good faith, or that there is any principle beyond winning. Their arguments don't make sense because they aren't trying to, it's just trying to provide a figleaf - no matter how small - so their voters can stick to the party line.

It makes sense: this is an existential threat. To accept even a hint of systemic racism would mean the complete collapse of whatever intellectual underpinnings conservative philosophy has left.