Herschel Walker Wants His Supporters To Have Fake Police Badges Too
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The campaign for Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has reportedly ordered prop police badges to distribute to supporters less than a week after he flashed a faux badge onstage during a debate.
Walker’s campaign told NBC News on Monday that it ordered 1,000 fake “I’m with Herschel” badges to stir up support in response to the controversy.
The former NFL player had been responding to remarks from his Democratic opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, who had criticized Walker for pretending to be a police officer.
“I am work with many police officers,” the candidate said as he flashed the badge to the debate crowd, to a moderator’s dismay.
Although Walker has since claimed that the badge is legit, the executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association told NBC News that honorary badges don’t give people the right to arrest or make traffic stops.
The fake badges, some of which were reportedly set to arrive as early as Thursday for an event, were not seen at the crime-themed rally in Macon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
HuffPost has reached out to the Walker campaign.
The event included another flash of the fake badge from Walker, this time in front of several sheriffs.
Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker brought sheriffs to his campaign event so he could get another chance to show off his fake police badge. pic.twitter.com/0AjNTGXDct
— The Recount (@therecount) October 20, 2022
Gail Gitcho, a campaign strategist who ordered the badges on Saturday, told NBC News that the candidate has been a “friend to law enforcement and has a record of honoring police.”
“If Sen. Warnock wants to highlight this, then bring it on,” Gitcho told the news outlet in an apparent reference to criticism from Walker’s Democratic opponent. “It just gives us a chance to talk about Herschel’s support of law enforcement and law enforcement’s support for him. It’s a great issue for us.”
Before running for Senate, Walker had falsely claimed to have worked in law enforcement and also had his own run-ins with police.
The Associated Press reported earlier this year of a 2001 incident in which Walker allegedly talked about engaging in a shoot-out with Texas police.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
