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John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, had once viewed Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) as a “once-in-a-generation” talent — a young, upstart politician with a promising future in Washington.

Yet after a mob of Trump supporters burst into the Capitol on Wednesday, Danforth said that campaigning for Hawley to take his old seat was “the worst mistake I ever made in my life.”

Hawley had been the first senator to announce he would object to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, citing baseless claims of mass election fraud. So when the rioters bashed inside, attempting to overturn the election, it was clear who was at fault, Danforth said.

“But for him it wouldn’t have happened,” Danforth told the Kansas City Star. He made the certification vote “a way to express the view that the election was stolen. He was responsible.”

The former senator was far from the only one to lay blame on his former protege. In the span of about five hours on Thursday afternoon, Hawley was denounced by one of his top donors, dropped from a book deal and lambasted by several Missouri Republicans. Calls for him to resign poured in from the editorial boards of Missouri’s two major newspapers and students at the law school where he was once taught.