Herschel Walker Insists Police Badge He Flashed During Debate Is Real: 'I Have Badges from All Over'
NBC News Herschel Walker
Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker continues to claim that an honorary police badge he was given is "real," and allows him to "work with the police getting things done," saying as much in an interview aired days after he brandished the badge at a debate on Friday.
During his Georgia Senate Debate with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock last week, 60-year-old Walker took the badge out of his suit pocket after his opponent called out several past instances in which the Republican has lied about working in law enforcement.
"One thing I have not done, I've never pretended to be a police officer," Warnock said in a clip from the debate. "And I've never threatened a shootout with the police."
Walker then reached into his coat, responding: "And now, I have to respond to that. No, no, no, I have to respond to that. It's so funny, I am [sic] work with many police officers."
Walker then pulled a badge out of his pocket as moderator Tina Tyus-Shaw regained control of the debate. "Mr. Walker, you are very well aware of the rules tonight, and you have a prop," she told him. "That is not allowed, sir. I ask you to put that prop away."
RELATED: Herschel Walker Scolded for Flashing 'Prop' Police Badge During Georgia Senate Debate
philip lewis/Twitter
In an interview that aired Monday on Today, Walker continued to insist the badge was real, offering a convoluted answer when questioned about where the badge came from or what, exactly, it allows him to do.
"That's a badge that I was given by a police officer and I do have the badge I carry with me all the time. It's a real badge. It's not a fake badge," Walker told journalist Kristen Welker, according to a transcript of the interview.
As a local prosecutor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Walker's badge appeared to be an "honorary deputy" badge from the Cobb County Police Department, which he described as like having "a junior ranger badge."
Walker continued, holding the badge up to face the camera: "I have badges from all over the — all over Georgia, even from Chatham County. I had to wait- wait — I had from Chatham County which is a county, which is a county, uh, which is a county from ... oh I have it upside down. Right, which is a county from where Sen. Warnock is from. I have an honorary sheriff badge for that county with limited rights."
Asked what those "limited rights" entail, Walker said, "Everyone can make fun, but this badge give me the right ... If anything happened in this county. I have the right to work with the police getting things done," he insisted. "People that don't know that. I've been working with law enforcement for years. I do training program but they get to get credit for it. I do a program, a leadership program. I do health and wellness programs. I visit prisons."
As Welker noted on Today, honorary badges do not give arresting authority.
Walker's claims about his police badge — and working with law enforcement — are not new.
In August, the candidate posted an image of a Cobb County, Georgia, "Special Deputy Sheriff" badge on Twitter, writing that he "was proud to serve the blue as an Honorary Agent and Special Deputy Sheriff of Cobb County for many years."
While @ReverendWarnock was calling law enforcement "thugs and bullies" I was proud to serve the blue as an Honorary Agent and Special Deputy Sheriff of Cobb County for many years. pic.twitter.com/3wf7ay5JmB
— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) August 30, 2022
When asked about that badge, a public information officer at the Cobb County Sheriff's Department told PEOPLE: "The previous administration did not provide [current] Sheriff Owens a list of the previous honorary deputies, nor a list of their responsibilities. Therefore, Sheriff Owens had to rebuild the program from scratch and cannot confirm who might have previously held the honorary deputy title."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has referenced at least three instances of Walker lying about being in law enforcement, including in 2019, when he said he "spent time at Quantico at the FBI training school," a claim multiple fact-checkers have disputed.
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Walker — a college football legend in Georgia — has made many other other false claims, too — including that he graduated from college, that his grandmother is full Cherokee and that he had a COVID-killing spray before vaccines rolled out. He has also recently been accused of lying about how many children he's fathered and whether he's paid for women to have abortions.
Walker has repeatedly defended his statements and denied wrongdoing.
