 An endorsement by Texas pastor John Hagee stirred controversy due to past remarks, which some alleged to be anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish.McCain initially sought and accepted Hagee's endorsement, but on April 20, 2008, he described accepting the endorsement as a mistake.He formally rejected the endorsement on May 22, 2008, following news reports of a sermon Hagee gave in the 1990s alleging that Adolf Hitler driving the Jewish people from Europe was "God's will" as it was part of a divine plan to gather Jews in the Holy Land.