Herschel Walker gives bumbling defence for flashing ‘honourary’ police badge at debate
Mr Walker had difficulty explaining the origin of the police credential he flashed during Friday’s debate with Senator Raphael Warnock
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Herschel Walker, the GOP candidate who is facing Senator Raphael Warnock in the November general election, defended his decision to flash a police badge during last week’s debate between the two candidates as evidence of his connections to law enforcement.
Mr Walker, who lacks a college degree and has never been employed as a law enforcement officer by any federal, state, or local police or investigative agency, has nonetheless claimed to have been an FBI agent and has also made statements in which he falsely asserted that he has spent time working as a sworn police officer.
On Friday, Mr Warnock called Mr Walker out for the practice during their only head-to-head debate.
“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,” he said.
The former football star responded by flashing a star-shaped badge he’d pulled from his suit jacket towards the camera and claiming he “worked with many police officers”.
Herschel Walker acknowledges giving check to ex-girlfriend but says he doesn’t know if it was for abortion
Debate moderator goes for viral for saying no-show Herschel Walker ‘represented by empty podium’
Herschel Walker news – live: Walker insists Georgia debate sheriff badge is ‘legit’ despite mockery
But in a interview with NBC News, Mr Walker defended the move and said he carries it “all the time” and noted that he was given the badge “by a police officer”.
When NBC correspondent Kristen Welker asked who gave it to him, Mr Walker responded: “This badge is from, um—this badge. I have badges from all over the—all over Georgia, even from Chatham County. I had to wait—wait—I had from Chatham County, which is a county, which is a county, uh, which is a county from…”
Pressed further on the origins of the badge, he told Ms Welker it is “from the sheriff from Johnson County”.
“Everyone can make fun, but this badge give me the right… If anything happened in this county, I have the right to work with the police getting things done,” he said.
After Welker asked if the badge gives him any police powers, Mr Walker admitted that it is only an honourary badge, but he then contradicted himself by saying that police “can call me whenever they want me and I have the authority to do things for them to work with them all day”.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments