*Rev. Al Sharpton claims Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker is an “insult” to the Black community.
Georgia’s midterm elections will be held in two weeks which will see Republican candidate Walker face off against Democratic candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock. Former President Trump has endorsed Walker and campaigned with him in Georgia.
Sharpton has suggested that Trump helped bolster Walker’s visibility as a senatorial candidate because the former NFLer and Warnock are both Black politicians, TheWrap reports.
“I don’t think they vetted him or cared: ‘Put a Black guy, there’s a Black guy, here’s my guy.’ And as he began to become exposed … it doesn’t matter: ‘We’re throwing a Black guy in the ring with a Black guy.’ That’s how Trump thinks. The insults started with Trump,” Sharpton said while appearing on “Morning Joe” with host Jemele Hill.
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“What is scary is that people are buying into it,” he continued. “Clarence Thomas, I disagree with just about everything he’s ever uttered, but Clarence Thomas does have a background and an understanding of law. I don’t think Herschel knows the difference between the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and the fact that they would throw him in there is an insult to all of us that fought and continue to fight to open doors for Blacks. We should be celebrating two Black men running against each other with political ideas, rather than being ashamed every time he opens his mouth. We say, ‘Oh my god, what is he going to say now?’”
Walker’s disturbing personal life has been at the center of his political campaign — from reports about “bastard” kids that he allegedly refuses to acknowledge, to accusations from women that he demanded they have abortions, to claims he’s been an absentee father to his eldest son Christian — Walker has denied all salacious allegations against him.
Meanwhile, Trump and GOP political organizations have defended Walker amid the controversy.
“Herschel has properly denied the charges against him, and I have no doubt he is correct,” Trump said in a statement on his social media platform Truth Social, CNBC reports.
“Herschel Walker is being slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats,” Trump said in his statement. The former president, whose 2016 campaign was also marred by personal scandals, said of Walker, “They are trying to destroy a man who has true greatness in his future, just as he had athletic greatness in his past.”
Sharpton said Walker’s presence on the ballot is “an insult to all of us that fought and continue to fight to open doors for Blacks. We should be celebrating two Black men running against each other with political ideas, rather than being ashamed every time he opens his mouth.”
Hill co-signed Sharpton’s stance on Walker, saying “He’s not qualified. And despite this rise that he’s had, I think if you get a lot of these people isolated that are supporting him and say, ‘Do you honestly think that this is the most qualified person that you have to be the senator of a state like Georgia where you have millions of peoples’ lives in your hand? You think this is the best option?’ They’d be lying if they said that this was the best option in Georgia.”
Watch the “Morning Joe” segment with Sharpton and Hill here.
