After mistakenly quoting racist magazine, Hawley says critics overuse white nationalist label

Sen. Josh Hawley on Tuesday insisted he was right.

On the Fourth of July, the Missouri Republican tweeted a quote about Christianity and the founding of America he said was by Patrick Henry. Historians said the quote wasn’t actually by Patrick Henry, but about Patrick Henry, from an article in a magazine called The Virginian in the 1950s. They also pointed out that the magazine often published racist and antisemitic articles.

“First of all, I think I was quoting Patrick Henry,” Hawley said. “But secondly, it’s not a goof to say that the American founders believe rightly that biblical principles and Christian principles contributing to the founding of this nation. And the idea that is somehow a cover for white nationalism is absurd. And that’s exactly the argument they were making, is that if you put that out there, we’re gonna find some way to call you a white nationalist.”

Hawley then referenced a speech he gave in 2021 at CPAC, a conference for conservative activists that features speeches by prominent Republicans, where he finished by talking about Daniel Webster and how the former Massachusetts senator used to end speeches in the buildup to the Civil War by saying “union now, union forever.” Hawley said “America now, America first, America forever.”

Hawley was paraphrasing Webster. The exact quote was “liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

Immediately after his speech, reporters pointed out the more recent example of a similar reference, by former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who said “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

“It’s always always an effort to try and delegitimize the speech,” Hawley said. “And I’m not gonna get into that at all, whatsoever. I’m gonna play this game.”

Over the course of his first term, Hawley has shown a tendency to double down in the face of criticism. After he was photographed raising a fist to protesters on January 6, 2021, before some of those protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Hawley put the photograph on campaign merchandise to raise money. Asked whether he could recall a moment where he apologized for a mistake, Hawley said he was correct that Christian principles contributed to the founding of the country.

“If I’m wrong about something, I mean, but I’m not gonna apologize for being right,” Hawley said.

Hawley also defended Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican who faced criticism after claiming all white nationalists weren’t racist during an interview on CNN.

The definition of a white nationalist is someone who espouses white supremacy and supports racial segregation.

“My opinion, of a white nationalist, if somebody wants to call them a white nationalist? To me, is an American. It’s an American,” Tuberville said on CNN. “Now, if that white nationalist is a racist? I’m totally against anything that they want to do because I am 110 percent against racism.”

After the backlash, Tuberville later told reporters that he believed white supremacists were racists.

In response to questions from reporters, Hawley denounced white nationalism, saying he believed it was wrong and that the ideology had no place in the military.

“What he said to me is that he thinks that what the military bureaucracy is doing is they are labeling people in the military who are good patriotic, probably Trump supporters, they’re labeling them as white nationalists and he disagrees with that,” Hawley said. “Now to me, that’s a whole different deal. I probably agree with him.”