WHAT THEY’RE SEEING: Walker Lied About Donating “Millions of Dollars to Charities”

GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker continues to show Georgians he has a problem with the truth — this time claiming to have “given millions of dollars to charities,” and “pledged that 15 percent of profits would go to charities,” when according to the New York Times, “there is scant evidence that Mr. Walker’s giving matched those promises.” 

See some of the coverage of Walker’s latest controversy below:

The New York Times: Walker’s Business Pledged Gifts To Charities, But Proof Is Scant

By David Fahrenthold and Shane Goldmacher, September 22, 2022

• Mr. Walker, a former football star, pledged that 15 percent of profits would go to charities, a promise the company said was “part of its corporate charter.” For years, Mr. Walker’s company named four specific charities as beneficiaries of those donations, including the Boy Scouts of America and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
  
• But there is scant evidence that Mr. Walker’s giving matched those promises. When The New York Times contacted those four charities, one declined to comment and the other three said they had no record or recollection of any gifts from the company in the last decade.
  
• Walker, who is facing Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in his first bid for public office, has been dogged by repeated instances in which he was found to have given misleading or outright false details about his life story.
  
• He falsely claimed to have graduated “in the top 1 percent” of his class at the University of Georgia, when in fact he had not graduated at all: He left the university after his junior year to play professional football. He also said he had “worked in law enforcement” when he had not.
  
• And Mr. Walker said in 2020 that his food-distribution company, Renaissance Man Food Services, employed about 800 people. Earlier that year, it had listed just eight employees when it applied for and received a $111,300 loan from a federal program to assist companies through the pandemic.
  
• “At this point, it’s clear that pretty much everything Herschel Walker says bears no resemblance to the truth,” Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a written statement.

MSNBC – All In With Chris Hayes (WATCH): Scant Proof Of Herschel Walker Company Donations

September 22, 2022

• Hayes: “Herschel Walker may be among the most unqualified, if not the most unqualified, candidate running to serve in public office – not only because he seems just incapable of answering even the most basic policy questions, but because he appears to lie almost instinctually.”
  
• Hayes: In a new report from the New York Times, Fahrenthold uncovered a pledge made by Herschel Walker’s business to donate profits to charities, a pledge still available on an archived version of its website in 2017. 
  
• Hayes: As Fahrenthold reports, sure seems like Walker didn’t make good on that promise. 
  
• Hayes: “When The New York Times contacted those four charities, one declined to comment and the other three said they had no record or recollection of any gifts from the company in the last decade.” 
  
• Hayes: Walker through his company tried to…earn some goodwill by pledging charitable donations that well, simply never materialized.

MSNBC – Deadline: White House with Nicole Wallace (WATCH): GOP Again Grappling with Candidate Quality Issues with Herschel Walker

September 23, 2022

• Wallace: The New York Times is reporting that embattled Georgia Republican nominee for Senate Herschel Walker has misrepresented his company’s charitable giving.
  
• Wallace: That’s despite claims that 15% of his profits would go to charity. 
  
• Wallace: Of the four charities contacted by The Times, quote, “One declined to comment and the other three said they had no record or recollection of any gifts from the company in the last decade. Hmmm.

The Hill: Herschel Walker exaggerated claims about charity donations: NYT

By Brad Dress, September 22, 2022

• Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker exaggerated claims about charity donations his company made to at least four organizations, The New York Times reported Thursday.
  
• Walker has also been accused of exaggerating other details about his life. The candidate once said he graduated in the top 1 percent of his class, but he in fact never graduated from college, instead going to play for the NFL. Walker also claimed he worked for law enforcement and said he had employed 800 people through RMSF in 2020, which actually had eight employees that year.

The Daily Beast: NYT Finds Little Proof to Back Up Herschel Walker’s Charitable Claims

By AJ McDougall, September 22, 2022

• An investigation by The New York Times found “scant evidence” that a food-distribution company belonging to Herschel Walker, the Republican senatorial candidate in Georgia, actually donates a portion of its profits to charity, a supposedly core “part of its corporate charter” that Walker has boasted of in the past.
  
• Around 2007, according to the Times, Walker began professing that Renaissance Man Food Services would donate “fifteen perfect” of profits to charity. “I think it’s my responsibility to share the blessing with others,” he told a magazine.
  
• Between then and 2017, Renaissance Man named four charities as designated beneficiaries—the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Special Olympics, PE4Life, the Boy Scouts of America—among several other unnamed ones. Three of those charities said they had no evidence of any significant donations in the last ten years.

People: New Report Questions Whether Herschel Walker Exaggerated Company Charitable Donations

By Virginia Chamlee, September 23, 2022

• A new report is raising questions about charitable donations made by Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s company. On Thursday, The New York Times reported that the food distribution center founded by Walker, 60, claimed to donate a portion of its proceeds to four non-profit organizations — but at least some of the organizations say they never received a donation from the company.

• The Times reports that Walker’s company, Renaissance Man Food Services (RMSF), once pledged to donate 15 percent of his profits to non-profits including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Special Olympics, PE4Life Foundation and the Boy Scouts of America.

• The National Multiple Sclerosis Society said it received $860 from Walker in 2005, $1,000 from RMSF in 2006, and $25 from RMSF in 2009. The Special Olympics declined to comment, while the other organizations said they were unaware of any donations coming from Walker or his company.

• The news about the charitable donations is the latest in a long line of controversies for the football legend, who won a landslide victory in Georgia’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate, garnering more than 68% of the vote.

• Walker has falsely claimed he graduated from the University of Georgia (which he attended before leaving after his junior season to play football professionally in the short-lived United States Football League) and has said in the past that he was “valedictorian of my class.”

• He has also claimed to have access to a COVID-killing spray before vaccines were rolled out (no such spray exists) and has expressed doubts about human evolution, questioning why apes still exist.

• Emails and text messages obtained by The Daily Beast allegedly show that even Walker’s own campaign aides are distrustful of the candidate, who they described in exchanges as lying “like he’s breathing.”

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