Georgia senate hopeful Herschel Walker was rebuked during a debate on Friday night for bringing out a 'police badge' in response to an attack on his previous false claims to be in law enforcement - insisting that he 'works with many police officers'.
Walker, 60, has in the past claimed to be a FBI agent, a 'certified peace officer', and a member of Cobb County police.
The Cobb County Police Department told the paper it had no record of involvement with Walker.
The Cobb Sheriff's Office could not say whether he was an honorary deputy.
J. Tom Morgan, the former DeKalb County district attorney, said the badge - even if it was handed to Walker - was worthless.
'It gives you absolutely no law enforcement authority,' he said. 'It's like a junior ranger badge.'
Morgan said many communities in Georgia stopped handing them out amid fears they could be used to impersonate a police officer, which is a felony.
In 2000, he told Irving, Texas, police that he was 'a certified peace officer,' according to a police report obtained by the newspaper.
In 2013, he told an Army suicide prevention event that, in 2001, he chased down a man who was late delivering a car.
'I worked in law enforcement, so I had a gun,' Walker said.
'I put this gun in my holster and I said, 'I'm gonna kill this dude.'
The paper reported that, in 2017, he declared: 'I work with the Cobb County Police Department, and I've been in criminal justice all my life.'
And in September 2019, he went further, appearing on stage at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to tell an auditorium of soldiers in combat fatigues: 'I worked for law enforcement, y'all didn't know that either?
'I spent time at Quantico at the FBI training school. Y'all didn't know I was an agent?'
Pressed by the paper to explain his claim, Walker's spokesman in June said he once attended a training camp in 1989, when he was retiring from professional sport.
'They had an obstacle course and you shoot at targets to protect your partner as you advanced up the course,' he told the AP at the time.
'I had fun. There were about 200 recruits there.' But Walker also climbed further out on a limb regarding the story that has dominated the race’s closing stages — the accusation from the mother of one of his children that he had previously paid for her to have an abortion.
Walker, who campaigns on an emphatically anti-abortion platform, again insisted without equivocation that the woman’s story was “a lie.” The tactic may be effective — but only so long as it is not disproven by any new evidence.
Warnock holds a small lead in polling averages, but Georgia retains an underlying Republican lean despite narrow Democratic victories during the 2020 election cycle.
This year, it is one of three states, along with Pennsylvania and Nevada, most likely to flip in the battle for the Senate.
This year, it is one of three states, along with Pennsylvania and Nevada, most likely to flip in the battle for the Senate.
Walker put in a much sharper performance than Democrats and many pundits expected. He was helped by having set a notably low bar for himself — and by the commonly held belief among liberals that he would be hopelessly exposed on the debate stage.
“I’m not that smart,” the Republican candidate said last month. “He [Warnock] is going to show up and embarrass me at the debate.”
Walker more than avoided embarrassment. He jabbed back at Warnock — prompting occasional applause and cheers from his sometimes-raucous supporters in the audience — and appeared at times to rattle the incumbent senator, who won a narrow victory in a January 2021 runoff.
Walker attacked Warnock repeatedly for answers that the Republican contended were evasive. At times, Walker had a point — as when the incumbent senator skated away from questions on whether he believes there should be any restrictions on abortion or, even more conspicuously, whether he wants President Biden to run again in 2024.
“I have not spent a minute thinking about what politician should run for what in 2024,” Warnock claimed.
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