Schweich died after an apparent suicide in his suburban St. Louis home last Thursday. Danforth decries 'anti-Semitic whispers' in Schweich eulogy

Former Missouri Sen. John Danforth sharply criticized the state’s current political discourse during his eulogy for state auditor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Schweich on Tuesday.

“Words do hurt. Words can kill. That has been proven right here in our home state,” the Republican told an audience packed with the state’s top political figures, including Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.


Schweich died after an apparent suicide in his suburban St. Louis home last Thursday. Danforth said in his speech that he had spoken with Schweich two days before and that Schweich was “upset about” a radio commercial and a “whispering campaign” that he was Jewish.

The ad in question, run by the Citizens for Fairness PAC, features a narrator imitating “House of Cards” character Francis Underwood, calling him a weak candidate for governor who would lose in the general election.

“Once Schweich obtains the Republican nomination, we will quickly squash him like a bug that he is and put our candidate, Chris Koster in the governor’s mansion,” the narrator intones.

Schweich had also alleged that state GOP chairman John Hancock was falsely telling others that he was Jewish. Hancock has acknowledged telling that to others but rejected claims it was part of a larger smear campaign against Schweich.

“Until recently, I mistakenly believed that Tom Schweich was Jewish, but it was simply a part of what I believed to be his biography,” Hancock emailed the party’s central committee last week. He did not attend the service Tuesday, according to reports.

While not mentioning Hancock by name, Danforth rejected the denial.

“Someone said this was no different than saying a person is a Presbyterian. Here’s how to test the credibility of that remark: When was the last time anyone sidled up to you and whispered into your ear that such and such a person is a Presbyterian?” he asked.

Danforth, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1976 to 1995, called the 2016 gubernatorial race “worse than anything” he could remember in all his years.

“We often hear that words can’t hurt you. But that’s simply not true. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said just the opposite. Words for Jesus could be the moral equivalent of murder,” he said. “He said if we insult a brother or sister we will be liable. He said if we call someone a fool we will be liable to hell. Well how about anti-Semitic whispers? And how about a radio ad that calls someone a ‘little bug,’ and that is run anonymously over and over again?”

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the first name of the GOP party chair.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Jennifer Shutt @ 03/03/2015 04:11 PM Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the first name of the GOP party chair.