Walker Isn’t Ready: Another Week Filled with Scams, “Head-Scratching” Policy Gaffes, Ethics Investigations, and Hiding from Georgians

U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker is facing scathing criticism from all sides after a week of “head-scratching” comments about climate policy, hiding from Georgians and blocking press from his own campaign events, a potential DOJ investigation into his financial disclosures, and revelations about his involvement in yet another scam business. With his latest disastrous week, Walker continues to show Georgians he’s not ready to represent them in the U.S. Senate. 

Catch up on Walker’s messy week below:

Blocking press, hiding from Georgians: Walker came under heavy scrutiny for blocking access to his “open to everyone” appearance at a public park in Gainesville, Georgia.

Listen from WABE:

• WABE Host: “Republican US Senate candidate Herschel Walker is making the campaign rounds, but apparently reporters are not allowed to attend.
  
• “The Hall County GOP held a barbecue Saturday in a public park with signs “Everyone Welcome” where Walker and other candidates spoke. A WABE reporter, though, was asked to leave.
   
• “On Twitter, the Hall County GOP made it clear that it was not their decision, but that they’d been asked by the Walker campaign to exclude media. Walker also has not agreed to any debates yet with Senator Raphael Warnock.” 

AJC: The Jolt: Herschel Walker’s campaign bars press, brings in reinforcements

• Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker has scarcely changed his approach to the media since running away with the GOP nod in May. He’s largely stuck to a “velvet rope” regimen of private events, tightly controlled appearances and limited-access speeches.
  
• That strategy was even more pronounced in the last week as he faced another series of damaging stories that could threaten his credibility. But rather than address the criticism head on, Walker spoke at two events within the last week that barred media access.
  
• The first was a Buckhead Young Republicans gathering, which one of your Insiders was told was a “closed, private event.” The second was a Hall County GOP meeting at a public park in Gainesville, where organizers booted WABE’s Rahul Bali from a speech advertised as “open to all.”
  
• In both cases, campaign officials said the event organizers set the protocol. But Hall County GOP officials countered that Walker’s aides dictated the no-media policy.

Walker widely panned for “head-scratching” comments on climate policy: It’s no wonder Walker tried to keep press out of his “open to everyone” event this weekend – video from the event caught Walker discussing climate policy as “our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air.” 

Fox News: Herschel Walker’s head-scratching answer on Green New Deal, China’s ‘bad air’ draws criticism

• GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker was roundly criticized Monday for his argument against climate legislation like the Green New Deal.

• Walker said during a campaign stop in Hall County, Georgia on Saturday that such billion-dollar laws would indirectly reward China and other major polluters. He said, under the Green New Deal, clean U.S. air would ultimately be sent to China and dirty Chinese air would then contaminate American skies.
  
• “We, in America, have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world,” he told a group of supporters. “So, what we are going to do is put, from the Green New Deal, millions, billions of dollars cleaning our good air up. So, all of the sudden China and India, they put nothing to clean that situation up.”

• “Since we don’t control the air, our good air decides to float over to China’s bad air,” Walker continued. “So, when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So, it moves over to our good air space. Then, now, we got to clean that back up.”

• Walker’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment from Fox News.

GPB News: Herschel Walker’s ‘bad air’ comments the latest in series of policy gaffes

• Republican U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker’s viral comments about polluted “bad air” floating to China is the latest misstep for a campaign seeking to overcome an avalanche of negative stories and his penchant for controversial statements.
  
• Walker is locked in a close battle against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in one of the most important Senate races in this November’s midterm cycle.
  
• Speaking at a Hall County GOP event Saturday that the campaign barred media from attending, Walker said that COVID-19 was “created by China” and that it was not a good use of money to tackle air pollution through the Democrats’ sweeping “Green New Deal” proposal because China and other countries would not do the same.
  
• “Since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air, so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move,” Walker said. “So it moves over to our good air space. Then, now, we got we to clean that back up.”
  
• But that’s not how air pollution works. Reducing (or adding) pollution in one country affects the entire globe, and the United States’ air, clean or otherwise, does not just decide to “float” over to China and vice versa.
  
• Walker’s dubious claims about air pollution and China were not one-off remarks, but rather a regular feature of his stump speech. According to a review of audio from more than a dozen recent campaign events, Walker regularly discussed “rotation” of air that the U.S. can’t “control” and blamed China and India for “bad air.”
  
• “No matter how much money we put into controlling our air, it goes over to China or to somewhere else, and it messes up,” Walker said in Statesboro in May. “All of a sudden, it comes back over here.”
  
• At a Valdosta meet and greet, he decried “bad air” that would “float back over” while telling another crowd in St. Simons that “we don’t control this air” and that bad air “flows over to our space and our good air” and told the Fulton County Republican Women in March that “the thing about air, if you don’t control the air, the air just blows and all that.”
  
• Walker also has repeated a misleading claim that the U.S. has “some of the cleanest” air and water in the world as rationale for opposing Democrats’ climate change proposals.
  
• Walker’s campaign has largely been conducted behind closed doors and without much mainstream media access since he entered the race last August. He refused to debate his opponents on the way to a blowout primary win and has so far ignored requests to schedule debates for the general election despite promising to face Warnock.
  
• When Walker has done interviews, they gain traction for often nonsensical statements he’s made while answering questions, such as saying there are 52 states, musing that a solution to school shootings include “a department that can look at young men that’s looking at women that’s looking at social media” and responding to a reporter’s question about gun laws that “what I like to do is see it and everything and stuff.”
  
• Then there’s Walker’s biography and personal backstory, which includes numerous falsehoods and fabrications, ranging from overstated business records, false claims about graduating from the University of Georgia and his record in high school, claims he was in law enforcement and more.

Another day, another scam: Following recent revelations that he profited from a for-profit hospital chain that preyed on veterans, Walker is under fire for his involvement with yet another predatory business: a new CNN report reveals he partnered with “multi-level marketing” scheme that preyed on “the elderly and those with language barriers.”

WJCL in Savannah:

• WJCL Anchor: “Candidate Herschel Walker faces accusations of having a partnership with an energy company accused of using deceptive business practices.

• “We’re told Walker had connections to Just Energy. The company promised its customers renewable energy products that would save them money.
  
• “Walker was featured heavily on the company’s ad campaigns and even invested in the company.”

CNN: Herschel Walker partnered in 2012 with arm of energy company accused by multiple states of deceptive practices

• Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker was once a “partner” and “spokesman” for a subsidiary of an energy company, Just Energy, which was repeatedly targeted by states’ attorneys general and utility agencies over allegedly deceptive practices.
• Walker, the former football player turned businessman, and his technology company 34 Technologies in 2012 partnered with Momentis, a multi-level marketing subsidiary of Just Energy, to sell an online marketing service. 
• Before Walker and Momentis’ partnership was publicized in 2012, Just Energy, at times doing business under their previous name US Energy Savings, was repeatedly targeted for enforcement action by attorneys general in New York and Illinois. The parent company’s practices allegedly enticed potential customers into long term contacts falsely saying they would save them money, allegedly included the elderly and those with language barriers being put into contracts they did not understand.
• Walker and Momentis’ relationship began in 2012, according to a CNN KFile review of his business record, when Momentis and Walker’s company partnered on a product called M-Marketing Systems. 
• “This is a product that has the power to make a tangible difference in the business community,” Walker said in a video hosted on the website on Momentis in 2012 and 2013. The video said Walker found the product “was so compelling” that “he decided to buy into the company that was backing up the technology.”
• Walker spoke at a Momentis convention about M-Marketing Systems in 2012, where the CEO of Momentis Andy McWilliams described Walker as a “partner” in the company.
• “We obviously want you to know that Herschel is not just somebody we brought up on stage,” McWilliams said. “He is a partner in Momentis.”
• Though much of Walker’s business record — and lawsuits and false claims around it — have been widely covered, his ties to Just Energy have not been scrutinized.
• In 2014, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office alleged that the multi-level marketing practices pushed by Just Energy and Momentis’ salespeople falsely represented or misled customers about Just Energy’s products, including that the products would save customers money, were offered through a state-run program and that the company made special efforts to purchase state-based renewable energy.
• The state of Massachusetts and Just Energy and Momentis agreed to enter into an “assurance of discontinuance” action — a legal agreement between the attorney general’s office and another party to resolve the alleged unlawful practice without litigation — against Just Energy. Just Energy denied all wrongdoing but agreed to pay $4,000,000, most of it going to consumers. 
• The parent company Just Energy’s practices also resulted in settlements and payments to a state watchdog group in Illinois in 2006 and state regulators in Ohio in 2010 and 2016. Just Energy settled all of them by agreeing to pay large fines and restitution and promising to change their sales tactics. 
• It’s unclear what happened to M-Marketing Systems. By 2015, the website for M-Marketing was defunct, according to snapshots archived online.
• 34 Technologies also appears to have been short-lived. By 2014, two of 34 Technologies’ executive officers were already working at a different multi-level marketing company partnered with Walker called Livio International that sold skincare products.

Calls for DOJ Investigation: Walker’s pattern of deceiving Georgians continues as he comes under scrutiny for again submitting an inaccurate personal financial disclosure, hiding the source of more than $3 million worth of business dealings from Georgia voters:

Georgia Recorder: Walker latest to get flagged for campaign filing omission as Georgia Senate race heats up

• Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker is once again facing scrutiny over a finance disclosure originally filed in December, and a left-leaning political action committee is renewing its call for an investigation.
  
• End Citizens United asked the U.S. Department of Justice in April to investigate whether Walker broke the law in a report they said omitted required funding sources.
  
• The next month, Walker updated his filing, bringing his reported earned and non-investment income from about $925,000 to about $4.1 million with the addition of $3.2 million from H. Walker Enterprises.
  
• On Monday, the group wrote a second letter to the justice department alleging that irregularities still have not been cleared up.
  
• End Citizens United alleges Walker did not properly report that $3.2 million in the amended report and failed to properly disclose more than $680,000 he received for 17 speeches between July 2020 and December 2021.
  
• That seems suspicious, said Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United.
  
• “When ECU filed that first motion, Walker claimed he’d done everything by the book. But yet, just three weeks later, he revealed that he conveniently forgot to properly disclose $3 million in earnings. And even after getting caught and refiling his financial disclosure, we discovered he’s still hiding the truth from Georgians. He just can’t be honest. He’s still not reporting the many sources of that $3 million, which clients he got it from, what he did for that money, and what financial relationships he maintains with those clients to this day. $3 million. That’s not money you easily forget, unless you’re trying to hide something.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s The Jolt:

• ETHICS WATCH. A group that supports an overhaul of federal campaign finance laws wants federal prosecutors to investigate Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker.
  
• In a complaint filed with the Justice Department, End Citizens United said Walker submitted a personal financial disclosure which omitted details of more than $3 million worth of business dealings from his company, H. Walker Enterprises.
  
• Walker filed an amended financial disclosure earlier this year after the same group filed a separate complaint. ECU President Tiffany Muller said Thursday that the updated filing still didn’t provide all the required information.
  
• “He’s still not reporting the many sources of that $3 million, which clients he got it from, what he did for that money, and what financial relationships he maintains with those clients to this day,” Muller said.

No exceptions: On top of it all, Walker continues to be called out by local leaders all across the state for his dangerous stance on abortion. Walker supports making abortion illegal with no exceptions, even in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life.

WSB-TV: “Herschel Walker would support making abortion illegal not just in Georgia, but across the country.”

• Anchor: With Roe v. Wade overturned, Georgia Democrats are calling out Republicans for what they’re calling a dangerous and unpopular anti-choice agenda. Georgia Democrat lawmakers just wrapped up a press conference at the State Capitol.
  
• Congresswoman Nikema Williams: “Mitch McConnell confirmed that a federal abortion ban is on the table if Republicans take control of the Senate — and Herschel Walker, Republicans’ candidate for US Senate, would support making abortion illegal not just in Georgia, but across the country.”

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