Conservatives Humiliate Themselves Defending Herschel Walker’s Fake Police Badge

"BTW, Herschel Walker's badge is actually real," Erick Erickson lied on Twitter. "He was made an honorary deputy sheriff in Cobb County."

By Laura Bassett | October 16, 2022 | 5:15pm

Politics

Conservatives Humiliate Themselves Defending Herschel Walker’s Fake Police Badge

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has delivered the most ridiculous moment on a debate stage since Donald Trump defended the size of his penis during a GOP primary debate in 2016. When incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) called out Walker on Friday night for having lied multiple times about being a law enforcement officer—including telling soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington that he was an FBI agent—Walker whipped out a fake police badge on stage, saying nonsensically, “I am work with many police officers.”

The debate moderator quickly jumped in and scolded Walker for his use of a “prop,” which was explicitly against the rules of the debate.

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One would think that the party of “blue lives matter” and “law and order” would find it wildly offensive that a U.S. Senate candidate would not only lie multiple times about having been a cop, but actually flash a fake badge in a debate. Had Warnock or any other Democratic candidate done this, Republicans would have a world-ending meltdown about it, Fox News would run a chyron about it for years, and every police officer and union across the country would step up to denounce and mock such an overt lie for disrespecting the entire law enforcement community. But Walker is running as a Republican, and Republicans desperately need that Senate seat, so instead, they beclowned themselves in defense of him.

“BTW, Herschel Walker’s badge is actually real,” conservative commentator Erick Erickson tweeted after the debate. “He was made an honorary deputy sheriff in Cobb County, Georgia, and spent 15 years helping that department and discussing with deputies how to handle mental health situations. But I know facts don’t matter on Twitter.”

Unfortunately, facts do matter, even on Twitter, and many were quick to point out both major problems with Erickson’s remark. First, even if what he said were true, an “honorary badge” is still not a real police badge—police units give them out as gifts like pilots give children Delta wings on planes. But more hilariously, the Cobb County Police Department told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that it actually had “no record of involvement with Walker,” much less 15 years of consulting on how to handle mental health situations. They’re just piling lies on top of lies.

In the wake of Friday’s debate, many of the same conservatives who were up in arms about Jill Biden using the “Dr.” honorific after receiving a doctorate in education, even though she’s not actually a medical doctor, are praising a domestic abuser who literally held a gun to his wife’s head after he lied about having been a cop and FBI agent.

Prominent conservative author Brigitte Gabriel tweeted this the day after the debate:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) retweeted this praise for Walker, saying he did “better than expected” in the debate, where the bar was apparently on the floor:

And the right-leaning paper The Hill wrote that Walker’s performance in the debate had given Republicans “hope.”

Republicans continue to embrace a candidate who has lied about paying for abortions while claiming to morally oppose them, had many secret children, admitted he’s “not that smart,” abused his wife and threatened her with a gun, lied about being a law enforcement officer multiple times, and now has flashed a fake police badge on a debate stage. The party has given up on even trying to appear principled at all and fully leaned into just winning with whomever. Inspiring.