On Friday, Fox Business—the business “news” arm of Fox News—hosted failed Senate candidate and former NFL player Herschel Walker to comment on Black voter outreach by the Democratic Party. Walker overwhelmingly lost the Black vote in his 2022 Senate race in Georgia.
Walker appeared on “Mornings with Maria,” which is hosted by election conspiracy theorist Maria Bartiromo.
“Don’t separate Black men, don’t separate Latino men,” Walker said, criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent release of an “opportunity agenda” for Black men.
Walker went on to criticize recent comments from former President Barack Obama in which he said Black men may be hesitant to vote for Harris because of her gender.
“She’s not the right woman to be president, it’s got nothing to do with women. She’s not the right one to be president,” Walker said.
Walker is an odd person to elevate for commentary on the best strategy for winning over Black voters, because when he was tasked with doing so, he failed spectacularly. In his 2022 Georgia Senate race against Sen. Raphael Warnock, exit polls showed that only 8% of Black voters backed Walker, compared to 90% for Warnock. Walker performed even worse among Black women, receiving 5% of that vote compared to 93% for Warnock. Warnock easily won reelection.
Walker fell short even when compared to Donald Trump, who recruited him for the race. In 2020, running against President Joe Biden and Harris, Trump received 11% of the Black vote in Georgia (the Biden-Harris ticket received 88% of the Black vote).
Walker also has a credibility issue when it comes to offering commentary on gender and the presidency. When he was running, five women who had previously been in romantic relationships with him came forward to say that he was unfit for office.
One woman said Walker “cannot have control over a state when he has little to no control of his mind,” and accused him of threatening her with violence and putting his hands on her neck.
Additionally, Walker’s time as a politician was marred by a series of nonsensical statements made while on the campaign trail.
At one rally, Walker chose to rehash the plot of a horror film, remarking, “I don’t know if you know, but vampires are some cool people, are they not? But let me tell you something that I found out: a werewolf can kill a vampire. Did you know that? I never knew that.” He went on to conclude, “I don’t want to be a vampire anymore. I want to be a werewolf.”
Fox has been working overtime to promote the notion that Trump has a stronger than traditional appeal to Black voters, even editing video of a campaign appearance with Black and Latino voters to give the impression that Trump was more coherent than he appeared at the time of taping.
Fox has a long history of racism, misogyny, and flat-out lying to its viewers. Hosting Walker to discuss this issue is another in a line of questionable decisions by the network.
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