Republicans didn’t nominate Herschel Walker because he was an eloquent speaker.
He won the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock largely on the basis on his legacy earning the Heisman Trophy and winning a championship for the University of Georgia as a running back in the 1980s.
A political newcomer who has never run for office, Mr Walker has largely avoided speaking in a scripted manner on the campaign as he seeks the Georgia Senate seat.
Mr Walker has been plagued by multiple controversies, most notably allegations in multiple news reports that he paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion, which he vehemently denies. Still, he is locked in a tight race against Mr Warnock and if neither win a majority of the vote, they will go to a runoff election.
With this in mind, here are the weirdest, most bizarre or most nonsensical things Herschel Walker has said since he jumped on the campaign trail.
Creating a department to see what men are seeing on social media
After a gunman shot and killed 21 people in at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Mr Walker appeared on Fox News and tried to dodge the question of whether to pass legislation to mitigate gun violence. He spoke about Democrats’ efforts to combat disinformation as well.
“What about getting a department that can look at young men – that’s looking at women – that’s looking at social media,” he said. “They just want to continue talking about taking away your constitutional rights. And I think there more things that need to be looked into that have been happening for years and the way you stop it by putting money into the mental health field.”
Chinese air
In July, Mr Walker was caught on camera talking about climate change and making a scientifically inaccurate series of remarks about Chinese pollution in relation to the climate crisis. Specifically, he was criticising progressives’ proposed Green New Deal.
“We in America have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world,” he said at an event in Hall County.
“Since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move,” he said. “So it moves over to our good air space. Then now we got to clean that back up, while they’re messing ours up.”
Trees
Mr Walker’s words about China and pollution did not signal the end of his thoughts about the climate crisis. During an event with the Republican Jewish Coalition, Mr Walker criticised Mr Warnock’s vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ legislation that tackled both climate issues and health care prices.
Specifically, he criticised an aspect of the legislation that would spend $150m.
“They continue to try to fool you that they are helping you out,” he said. “But they’re not. Because a lot of money it’s going to trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?”
Bulls and cows
On the campaign trail, Mr Walker frequently likes to tell a folksy anecdote about a bull that impregnated multiple cows – somewhat bizarre given the allegations that he has sired multiple children from multiple women and hidden their existence.
“It’s about everybody thinking it’s better somewhere else,” he said back in September. “And I remember talking about this bull that was out in the field and he said six cows with him. Three of them were expecting calves.”
Mr Walker then mentioned that the bull sees three cows on the other side of a fence.
“Not worried about what he got now, the grass is as tall as his knees, all he had to do is eat grass,” he said. “He measured that fence up, and he said ‘you know what? I think I can jump this fence and get over there to those other cows.’”
As Mr Walker tells it, the bull then proceeds to jump over the fence, cuts up his belly, only to learn that what he thought were cows were actually bulls.
“And the reason I tell you that, don’t think something is better somewhere else,” he said. “This is a good place, and the way we make it better is by coming together.”
Mr Walker has told this story a few times, including when Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, came to campaign with him after the reports that he allegedly paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion.
‘People got to eat right’
During his sole debate in Savannah earlier this month, Mr Warnock touted his legislation to cap the cost of insulin for Medicare patients to $35 and said Mr Walker should explain why he would have voted against the legislation.
“I believe in reducing insulin, but at the same time you got to eat right,” he said. “Because he may not know, and I know many people who are on insulin, and unless you have – you’re eating right, insulin is doing you no good.”
Later in an interview with NBC News, he told Kristen Welker, he stood by those statements.
“I said lowering insulin ain’t going to help. Let me tell you the reason why: My mom is on insulin. If you don’t eat right, it’s not going to do anything. And that’s exactly what I said, you got to lower the price of food as well. Just lowering insulin doesn’t do it,” he said.
The badge
In addition to their exchange about insulin, Mr Walker and Mr Warnock had a heated exchange about crime and policing. In response, Mr Warnock mentioned a news reports that Mr Walker had said he was a law enforcement agent.
“One thing I have not done I've never pretended to be a police officer,” Mr Warnock said, adding, “I've never I've never threatened a shootout with the police.”
In response, Mr Walker pulled out a badge that had been given to him by the Cobb County Sheriff’s office.
“And you know what’s so funny,” he said. “I am, worked with many police officers.”
In response, one of the debate moderators admonished him for using a prop, which was against the agreed-upon debate rules.
“It’s not a prop, it’s real,” he said.
Later, Mr Walker recruited Johnson County Sheriff Greg Rowland in a video to show them both holding star-shaped badges.
