Well, it’s finally happening: We will have a great debate between Democratic incumbent Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican rival, the Heisman Trophy winner and interminable liar Herschel Walker.
Warnock is no pushover. Although he’s accepted the debate Walker agreed to, the one where Walker gets the topics ahead of time, Warnock only did so with the caveat that Walker also debate him another time without being given the topics. (Why do I think that will never happen?)
After months of back and forth, Walker agreed to debate Warnock in Savannah, Georgia, on Oct. 14, The Hill reported in early August.
“It’s time for Herschel Walker to stop playing games,” said Quentin Fulks, Warnock’s campaign manager, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). “The job of a U.S. senator isn’t one where you know the topics ahead of time or get a cheat sheet, and Herschel Walker shouldn’t need one to find the courage to walk on a debate stage.”
The Warnock campaign released an ad recently challenging Walker to follow through on his promises to debate and “quit the games.”
Walker has accused the Warnock camp of only wanting to debate in situations where his donors are running things.
Fulks told the AJC in August that the senator already accepted “three well-established Georgia debates,” despite Walker’s claims that he was ready to debate “any day of the week.” Fulks added that “nothing has changed. Reverend Warnock remains committed to debating Herschel Walker and giving Georgians three opportunities to see the clear choice about who is ready to represent Georgia.”
But the reality is that Walker only agreed to the Savannah debate after media conglomerate Nexstar agreed to supply the questions ahead of time. Walker has denied that he asked for the topics and tweeted that “it doesn’t matter what the topics are because [Warnock] can’t win on any of them.”
Warnock’s team has said that he would gladly accept the Savannah debate, but Walker would have to agree to another debate at either Mercer University on Oct. 13 or at the Atlanta Press Club debate on Oct. 16—without the topics in advance.
Lauri Strauss of the Atlanta Press Club told the AJC the debate remains on the calendar, and if Walker declines to show, he’ll be represented by an empty podium. Walker has previously refused to debate at Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism because he claimed it conflicted with Sunday night football; the debate falls on a Thursday.
Dodging debates is nothing new for Georgia’s cowardly Republican nominees. Walker refused to debate during the primaries in May, and in 2018, Gov. Brian Kemp refused a final debate with Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams.
As we’ve said at Daily Kos in the past, it’s no wonder Walker doesn’t want to debate Warnock. How will Walker possibly defend how his COVID-19 spray works or why he hid from the public and his own campaign staff that he’d fathered three children? Or why he said he graduated from college but didn’t. Or why he said he’d co-founded a veterans organization when he didn’t. Those are tough topics to debate with a sitting senator who also happens to be the senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.