I like this:
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is out with a new TV ad aimed at Republican Herschel Walker as the pair face off in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.
The 30-second spot appears to be Warnock’s first attack ad tracked by the firm AdImpact, and it features footage of Walker, a former college football star, promoting a body spray and claiming it can kill the virus that causes Covid-19.
Walker made the claim in an August 2020 interview with right-wing media personality Glenn Beck, shortly before launching his Senate campaign according to the Daily Beast.
“Right now, you know what, I’m gonna say something I probably shouldn’t,” Walker says in the interview clip featured in the ad.
“Do you know right now, I have something that can bring you into a building that would clean you from Covid as you walk through this dry mist. As you walk through the door, they will kill any covid on your body, EPA, FDA approved.” Walker adds.
As Walker says, “They don’t want to talk about that, they don’t want to hear about that,” text appears on screen that reads, “Is Herschel Walker really ready to represent Georgia.”
Here’s some more context from The Daily Beast:
In an August 2020 interview with right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck, Walker hyped two unspecified aerosol COVID prophylactics. One was the aforementioned “dry mist,” for use in an interior environment; the other was some sort of “spray.”
Walker dropped the big news unprompted about 40 minutes into the interview, amid a discussion of law enforcement, beginning by telling Beck that he “probably shouldn’t tell you.”
“Do you know right now, I have something that [you can bring] into a building, that will clean you of COVID, as you walk through this, this dry mist?” Walker asks.
Beck, processing this information, squints. Walker interprets this as an invitation to proceed.
“As you walk through the door, it will kill any COVID on your body,” he continues. He leans in and adds, “EPA-, FDA-approved.”
That claim would seem to indicate that the mystery treatment is an existing product. While there are obviously disinfectant sprays that are FDA-approved, no spray has been proven to stop the transmission of the airborne coronavirus. Walker’s claims seem to be based on nothing. Beck does a double-take, but the football icon isn’t done.
“When you leave—it will kill the virus as you leave, this here product,” Walker says. He adds that he has a second unspecified miracle product, a “spray” possibly indicated for use after the dry mist treatment.
“They don’t want to talk about that. They don’t want to hear about that,” Walker says. “And I’m serious.”
By the way, I love Run The Jewels but Killer Mike deserves scrutiny for this:
Former NFL player-turned-United States Senate candidate Herschel Walker sat down for an interview on the Love & Respect with Killer Mike show.
Rapper and activist Killer Mike née Michael Render, is facing criticism for sitting down with the GOP candidate.
“Instead of wondering why @KillerMike would sit down with @HerschelWalker, ask yourself: Why was the GOP’s Great Black Hope so eager to talk to the rapper who cozied up to Gov Vote Suppressor, carried the NRA’s water & told Black protesters to go home?,” writer Michael Harriot wrote on Twitter. “There’s your answer.”
The tweet garnered many replies including one that was consistent from other critics that the rapper/journalist “spoon-fed” Walker answers.
Other writers wondered, rightfully, if Killer Mike will sit down with the sitting Democratic incumbent, Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, who Walker will face in November.
Keith Reed of The Root noted that the interview was one of Walker’s most “lucid” as he’s been prone to incoherent responses to any number of questions throughout his campaign.
For example, the rapper asked Walker about his 2016 comments from his Svengali Donald Trump who asked Black voters “what do you have to lose” as it related to voting for Republican candidates. Walker told Killer Mike, “When he said that statement, I said, ‘I don’t really like how you said that statement.’ There’s no doubt, give him an opportunity and see what he can do...We use Black and brown people as people just to get votes but we don’t do anything for them.”
Meanwhile, over on the Governor’s race:
Former President Donald Trump's refusal to move on from the 2020 presidential election might backfire for the Republican Party in Georgia, where incumbent GOP Governor Brian Kemp is facing a challenge from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams.
While Kemp's victory over Trump-endorsed David Perdue in the primary jeopardized Abrams' chances, the governor could see an unexpected obstacle from voters who have largely disagreed with Abrams' policies.
Trump's supporters being swayed by the former president's opposition of Kemp could be enough to make up the difference by which Abrams lost in 2018. Kemp narrowly beat Abrams four years ago by 0.4 points, or 54,723 votes.
"A share of the Republican electorate still says they don't trust the election system even after the new audit was done in 2021, so it wouldn't take much for Trump to fan those suspicions and reduce the turnout, potentially," Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, previously told Newsweek.
Also:
Stacey Abrams is officially making her comeback as the Democratic nominee against Gov. Brian Kemp is Georgia’s gubernatorial race. She raised the heat in her first campaign ad coming for Kemp’s stances against gun laws and abortion, per The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Abrams’ ad came with even more timely commentary on the recent concerns around gun legislation after the Uvalde school shooting and reproductive rights following the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade.
More from The Atlanta Journal Constitution:
The 30-second ad pans Kemp’s support for “criminal carry” gun legislation and an income tax cut. More significantly, it’s the first TV ad this cycle from Abrams that targets the governor’s anti-abortion stance.
“He rolled back women’s rights, vowing to make abortion a crime with 10 years in prison,” the narrator says in the ad, adding: “Just when we need to move forward, Brian Kemp keeps taking us back.”
The ad cites Kemp’s initial support in 2019 for a so-called “trigger law” that would ban almost all abortions if Roe v. Wade was overturned.
And:
Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams waded further into her party’s June 21 runoffs for statewide office on Thursday, trying to pick who else will be on the ticket with her as she makes a second bid for governor.
Abrams had already endorsed state Rep. Bee Nguyen, an Atlanta Democrat, in Nguyen’s runoff contest with former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state. Thursday, she also asked Democrats to vote for Charlie Bailey in the party’s runoff for lieutenant governor over Kwanza Hall and for William Boddie in the runoff for labor commissioner over Nicole Horn.
She called all three “proven leaders” in a statement.
“To build a stronger Georgia, we need leaders who will work for quality, affordable healthcare, defend civil and human rights, protect the right to vote and build an economy that works for everyone,” Abrams said.
Health and Democracy are on the ballot and we need to be ready to keep Georgia Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with Warnock and his fellow Georgia Democrats campaigns:
Georgia
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