It’s easy to laugh at some of the GOP candidates for Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. When faced with questions about an FBI investigation into alleged crimes, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) rambled on about FBI corruption and how he was “set up.” Ohio senatorial candidate J.D. Vance thought lashing out at his opponent for voting with policies supported by President Joe Biden was smart until he was reminded of how he’s been called out for kissing an unadvisable body part of ex-president Donald Trump.
No debate, however, was expected to bring more laughs than the Georgia senatorial race between Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock, the experienced politician who also preaches at the former church of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Herschel Walker, former NFL star with a history of domestic violence and, like his hero, Donald Trump, outrageous lies. As the debate went on, exchanges between the two became less funny and more frightening, with Walker’s utter ineptitude and complete inability to grasp the importance of the topics being discussed to the people he wants to represent in federal office.
The moment that will get the most attention, surely, was Walker’s response to being called out for lying about having served as a police officer while also threatening to shoot officers during a reported domestic violence incident against an ex-girlfriend. When Warnock told the crowd that Walker had told that lie and threatened police, Walker pulled out some kind of badge he insisted was “real” and doubled down on the long-ago debunked story of his time in law enforcement.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D): “One thing I have not done — I have never pretended to be a police officer, and I’ve never threatened a shootout with the police.”
In response, Herschel Walker (R) pulled out a prop badge: “I am work with many police officers.” pic.twitter.com/Wyh6oYD9zB
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) October 14, 2022
As if having threatened the lives of the women he’s dated and the police weren’t enough, topics about issues facing Georgians today revealed more of Walker’s unfitness to serve. With no real idea of what diabetes is or how it is treated for people with different types of the disease, Walker said he wasn’t opposed to lowering insulin costs for Georgians, but that what they really needed to do was “eat right.”
Herschel Walker told diabetics that need insulin,… "Just eat right, because otherwise insulin is doing you no good."
Problem solved. What a genius.pic.twitter.com/KjcLogwftF
— Roshan Rinaldi (@Roshan_Rinaldi) October 15, 2022
When asked about his thoughts on the federal minimum wage, Walker furrowed his brow in confusion and said that charging a “fee” to companies who may not be able to pay their workers the bare minimum – $7.25 an hour is well below a living wage for the people of Georgia or any other American – was not something he could support.
Herschel Walker (R) in #GASenDebate calls for ending the federal minimum wage:
“Right now, I think you have to work with different corporations and see just where they can pay … To mandate a federal fee that they have to pay hourly wage, no I can’t approve that.” pic.twitter.com/XgplIoTkCE
— The Recount (@therecount) October 14, 2022
And yet, the GOP, in the spirit of gaslighting their people, a strategy they often used during the reign of the twice-impeached ex-president who lost the popular vote twice and tried to stage a coup (and whose policies Walker said he supported because Trump is his “friend”), took to Twitter following the debate and insisted that their candidate won the debate.
Well done, @HerschelWalker!
If anyone in Georgia is undecided—just watch that debate.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) October 14, 2022
For everyone watching with any sense at all, the overly kind and measured words of Rev. Sen. Warnock were proven true.
My opponent is not ready to represent the people of Georgia.
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) October 14, 2022
To watch the entire debate, see video below:
