Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker.Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty
Former football starHerschel Walkerjustwon Georgia’s Republican Senate primaryon Tuesday. In November, he’ll face Democratic Senator and Pastor Raphael G. Warnock in the general election. Until then, he might want to get his story straight about his college career at the University of Georgia.
Walker attended the school, where he became a Heisman Trophy winner and a College Football Hall of Famer, before leaving after his junior season to play football professionally in the short-lived United States Football League.
He claimed on his campaign website that he later returned to UGA to finish his studies and graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. AfterThe Atlanta Journal-Constitutionaskedaboutthegraduationclaim, the Walker campaign deleted the reference from his bio.
The line about earning his degree isstill visible in screenshotsfrom the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, whichCNN references in a fact-checking storyabout Herschel’s claims. (It’s alsostill included in an author biofor an edition of his bookBreaking Freeon Amazon.)
“I was majoring in Criminal Justice at UGA when I left to play in the USFL my junior year. After playing with the New Jersey Generals, I returned to Athens to complete my degree, but life and football got in the way,” Walker told the paper in a statement admitting he did not graduate.
During aninterview last week with Fox 5 Atlanta, anchor Russ Spencer asked him about making false claims about earning a degree. “In some instances, you’ve exaggerated,” Spencer said. “You said that you graduated from UGA.”
“I never said that,” Walker responded. “They say that. And I said — that’s what you gotta remember. I never, I never have said that statement. Not one time. I’ve said that I studied criminal justice at UGA.”
The false claim on Walker’s campaign website isn’t the only time the GOP candidate said he’d graduated from UGA. In fact, he’s said it multiple times and as recently as 2017 — even stating that he was a top student,according to an April CNN report.
“People say, ‘Herschel, you played football.’ But I said, ‘Guys, I also was valedictorian of my class. I also was in the top 1 percent of my graduating class in college,'” Walker said during an 2017interview with Sway Callowayon his SiriusXM radio show.
He also made the claim during a motivational speech that same year. “All of sudden I started going to the library, getting books, standing in front of a mirror reading to myself,” Walker says. “So that Herschel that all the kids said was retarded become valedictorian of his class. Graduated University of Georgia in the top 1 percent of his class.”
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“Do you think the election was stolen?” Spencer asked Walker.
“I think reporters say that. I don’t know whether President Trump has said it. Because he’s never said that to me,” Walker said.
“But everyone knows that something happened in the election,” Walker continued.
CNN reportsthat Walker attended a March rally in Commerce, Georgia, where Trump said the election was stolen, a claim he’s made repeatedly despite any evidence of wrongdoing.
“If Brian Kemp is renominated, he will go down in flames at the ballot box,“Trump said, referring the current Georgia governor who also won the primary this week. “Because [Abrams] will steal it from him and humiliate him, just like she brazenly stole the Georgia election from right under his nose in 2020.”
source: people.com
