Herschel Walker’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate is “insulting” at this point, according to The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill.
Friday afternoon, the New York Times dropped a bombshell on top of a bombshell when they reported that the woman who alleges Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who is running on a pro-life platform, had financed her abortion and sent her a get-well card, now says that Walker asked her to get a second abortion, though she chose to give birth to her son instead.
While Republicans have rallied around the former Georgia Bulldogs star, who denies all these claims (although his story seems to shift with each new revelation), plenty of people have been speaking out about Walker and what he represents.
“Well, that’s how he got in,” Whoopi Goldberg said of Walker’s nomination on a recent episode of The View. “They didn’t even try to find somebody who at least had the idea of how to take care of the people of Georgia. They just said ‘oh get somebody Black in there. Who do you know? Oh yeah, get him.’ And that’s what they did!”
Former ESPN host and current Atlantic writer Jemele Hill continued down that road, saying in a new piece that Walker’s candidacy is shameful because of how it implies Republicans see Black men.
“In theory, Georgia conservatives’ embrace of a Black Senate hopeful should be a sign of progress,” wrote Hill. “Instead, Walker’s candidacy is extraordinarily uncomfortable for me to watch because, while bolstering his political standing by repeating right-wing stereotypes about irresponsible Black fathers, he plays right into those same stereotypes.
“Walker’s disturbing history in no way reflects on other Black men. But I can’t help sensing some condescension in Republicans’ elevation of such a buffoonish candidate. Does Walker embody what they think Black men really are? Do they think that Black voters in Georgia are so gullible and hungry for representation that they would willingly overlook Walker’s obvious incompetence?”
Walker, who has admitted that he struggles with dissociative identity disorder, has offered up lies and incomprehensible comments that are second only to the man who initially endorsed him to run for Senate. In addition to the abortion scandal, Georgia’s Republican nominee for Senate has attempted to hide undisclosed children, embellished his business accomplishments, lied about academics, and falsely claimed he was a trained FBI agent. To say nothing of his comments about climate change, celebrities, and social media.
