Former Waco special counsel John Danforth privately assured Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno that she did "exactly the right thing" when she ordered U.S. Army tanks to begin pumping tear gas into the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, eight years ago, a source familiar with his comments told NewsMax.com Wednesday.
Paraphrasing a letter Danforth wrote to Reno earlier this year, the source said he told her:
"You shouldn't be haunted by Waco. David Koresh caused that. Given the particular circumstances you were in at that particular moment, you did exactly the right thing."
Shortly after the April 19, 1993, tank assault a blaze erupted, killing some 80 church members, including 25 children.
The former attorney general has turned Danforth's letter into a veritable campaign document, citing it twice in recent nationally televised interviews as she considers a run for Florida's Statehouse.
On May 20, Reno invoked Danforth's written comments in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, when he asked whether Waco would hurt her chances for elective office.
She paraphrased the former Waco special counsel's letter, saying he told her:
"I've heard you talk about the decision you made in Waco. I have had the chance as your special counsel to review that decision. I did not pass judgment on it in my report but I want you to know that I think you did exactly the right thing."
On Monday, during a debate on the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on CNN's "Larry King Live," King asked Reno about her previous admission to him that Waco was "a mistake."
Again, Reno invoked the Danforth letter:
"What I said, Larry, was that we would never know what the answer was. ... Senator John Danforth wrote me shortly after I came home, saying: 'You did exactly the right thing in Waco. You couldn't walk away from the deaths of agents. You couldn't stay there forever, and a delay of two weeks or two months wouldn't have made any difference, because David Koresh was out to create his own Armageddon.'"
The Danforth source said the retired senator's note was intended as a private act of compassion, meant to relieve any anxiety Reno might still have about the Waco debacle.