U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker has defiantly claimed again that the cop badge he pulled out at Friday’s debate is real and that he has been “working with law enforcement for years,” including training, leadership, and health and wellness programs.
After copping heat online for the stunt, where he was criticized for producing a prop during the debate, the Georgia Republican sat down with NBC News’ Kristen Welker for an interview airing in part Monday on Today. In it, he says he has an “honorary sheriff badge” for Chatham County, Johnson County, and Cobb County with “limited rights.”
“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. It is a real badge,” Walker says in the interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Daily Beast.
Questions surrounding the former NFL star’s alleged work with law enforcement have plagued his Senate campaign, including a June article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that indicates there is no real evidence to prove Walker’s longtime claims that he has worked alongside the FBI or police.
During Sunday evening’s debate, which Walker declined to attend and was represented by an empty podium, opponent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said Walker doesn’t tell the truth, using Friday night’s badge incident as an example of his lies.
“The other night when I said, ‘You keep pretending to be a police officer,’ he presented a badge as if that were proof that he really is a police officer,” Warnock said. “Now he wants us to think that he’s a senator. I think the people of Georgia are wise and discerning, and they know that at the end of the day, I know who I work for: I work for them.”
In the NBC interview, Welker asks Walker, “Who gave you that badge?”
Walker responds: “This badge is from, um—this badge. 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…”
At this point Walker shows the badge again, but it is unfortunately upside down.
“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.”
Welker presses Walker on where the badge he is holding is from.
“This is from my hometown,” Walker says.
“This is from Johnson County, from the sheriff from Johnson County, which is a legit badge. 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. 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 so, everyone will make fun, but I’ve been—have my men and women in black—men and women in blue backs since I’ve been doing this.”
When asked if the badge confers any arresting authority, Walker confirms it is an “honorary badge,” but that “they can call me whenever they want me and I have the authority to do things for them to work with them all day.”
Then, Welker tells Walker directly that “The National Sheriffs Association said an honorary badge… ‘is for the trophy case’ and asks, ‘why make the decision to flash it at the debate?’”
Walker answers: “That is totally not true. You can call the guy that gave me the badge… call the woman who gave me the badge and the same thing is, I tell you one thing they’re having fun in. They said I wasn’t working with Cobb County police, right? The Cobb County Sheriff Police.”
Walker appears to be referencing a Walker campaign spokeswoman’s claims to the Journal-Constitution that Walker is an honorary deputy in Cobb County, though the Cobb County Police Department told the newspaper it had no records to back up the claim.
“And this is the way people do news media,” Walker continues. “And I had the sheriff that gave me the badge and been there for years, been there for years came out and did a press conference with me and said, ‘Herschel has been with us for years, he’d been working with us.’”
Walker claimed the media “wasn’t listening to anything and want to try to find an excuse.”
He said: “No, I will always have my men and women in blue. That’s the reason they support me. I have more… more sheriffs that have supported Herschel Walker in Georgia than any candidate running today.”