The political mentor of Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) told a local newspaper on Thursday that backing the freshman Republican\u2019s bids for office was \u201cthe worst mistake I ever made in my life,\u201d calling Hawley\u2019s attempts to undermine confidence in the election of President-elect Joe Biden \u201cdangerous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jack Danforth, a former senator and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who is considered the dean of Missouri Republican politics, played a key role in elevating Hawley ahead of the latter man\u2019s race against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSupporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I ever made in my life,\u201d Danforth told St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger. \u201cYesterday was the physical culmination of the long attempt (by Hawley and others) to foment a lack of public confidence in our democratic system. It is very dangerous to America to continue pushing this idea that government doesn\u2019t work and that voting was fraudulent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danforth\u2019s comments starkly display the gap between many retired Republican officials and a new generation of Republicans who grew of political age during the Trump era and are far more willing to indulge constituents who believe in conspiracy theories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Danforth helped Hawley, a University of Missouri law professor who had just become the state\u2019s attorney general, clear the field of major competition during the Republican primary ahead of his successful bid against McCaskill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other Republicans in the Senate, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, have criticized Hawley\u2019s objections to counting electoral votes cast for Biden, arguing the effort was doomed from the start, encouraged Wednesday\u2019s violence and set a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n
Danforth, who was considered a moderate during his time in the Senate, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis guy is doing real harm,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat he\u2019s doing to his party is one thing. What he\u2019s doing to the country is much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
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