ATLANTA (AP) — After spending months arguing that Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker is “not prepared” for prime elected workplace, Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia is intensifying his critique forward of Election Day to say the superstar athlete is basically unfit for Capitol Hill.
From a rally with former President Barack Obama to a statewide bus tour that runs via the eve of Election Day on Tuesday, Warnock has hammered Walker as a “pathological liar” who has exaggerated his business, academic, professional and philanthropic achievements and been accused of violence against his family members and of paying for girlfriends’ abortions regardless of his public opposition to the process.
“It is a man who lies about essentially the most fundamental details of his life,” Warnock mentioned on a stage he shared with Obama. “And now he desires the remainder of us … to someway think about now that he’s a United States senator. … Herschel Walker is just not prepared. He’s not prepared. Not solely is he not prepared. He’s not match.”
Walker, who denies he’s ever paid for any abortions, is sticking to an argument he’s made for months: that Warnock is a rubber stamp for President Joe Biden and a Democratic congressional majority that Walker blames for inflation, rising crime and a continued movement of immigrants throughout the U.S. border with Mexico.
“He talked about I’m not prepared. No, you’re not prepared,” Walker answered Thursday in suburban Atlanta. “Since you both voted with Joe Biden 96% of the time, otherwise you had no clue what you had been doing. You choose which one you need — no clue of what you’re doing otherwise you voted with him 96% of the time which is headed within the unsuitable route.”
These competing closing arguments replicate the more and more private nature of the Georgia contest and the broader nationwide battle for management of Congress. Warnock and most Senate Democrats have steered away from Biden and the nationwide occasion model amid generationally excessive inflation, urging voters as a substitute to think about their decisions between particular person candidates. Republicans, in flip, have sought to nationalize Tuesday’s midterm elections as a referendum on Biden and his insurance policies.
The Georgia matchup might assist decide which occasion controls the Senate for the ultimate two years of Biden’s time period. The chamber is now divided 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris giving Democrats the tie-breaking vote.
By means of the summer time and early fall, Warnock, 53, usually prevented immediately attacking Walker, 60. As an alternative, he recommended the superstar athlete was merely not ready for the Senate. Warnock spent extra time touting his Senate record, particularly infrastructure and financial growth measures he labored on with Republicans, together with Democratic measures to cap insulin and different drug prices for older Individuals who use Medicare.
However Warnock has stepped up his assaults since two girls got here ahead in October to accuse Walker of encouraging and paying for his or her abortions once they dated the previous skilled soccer star. Walker, who helps a nationwide ban on abortion, has referred to as the allegations “foolishness.”
The senator’s shifts have come alongside polls suggesting a detailed end, with the potential of a runoff; Georgia regulation requires a majority to win statewide workplace, and a third-party candidate within the Senate contest might hold Warnock and Walker beneath that threshold.
“This man says that he’s in regulation enforcement. He’s not. Within the FBI. He wasn’t,” Warnock informed supporters final week throughout his bus tour, referring to a few of Walker’s inaccurate claims. “He mentioned that he graduated from the College of Georgia. He didn’t. He mentioned he was valedictorian (of his highschool class). He wasn’t. … He mentioned he had 800 workers. He solely had eight.”
In DeKalb County outdoors Atlanta, Warnock mocked Walker for carrying an honorary badge, apparently given to him by a Georgia sheriff, as proof of his claims to have labored for years in regulation enforcement. “He wears his lies fairly actually as a badge of honor,” Warnock informed voters.
Warnock continued to take an aggressive tack Sunday in his hometown of Savannah, and he has Monday stops deliberate for Macon and Columbus, hiting Georgia’s largest metro areas past Atlanta. Requested why he’d waited so late to assault Walker immediately, Warnock mentioned it was partially as a result of the second Walker accuser mentioned in an interview that she “felt threatened” by Walker, who has admitted some violent tendencies in his previous however mentioned they had been the results of psychological sickness that he now has underneath management.
Walker rejected Warnock’s criticism in a speech Thursday in Smyrna, north of Atlanta. He portrayed himself because the extra sincere candidate and mentioned his debate with Warnock proved he’s as much as the job.
“I took that man to high school, I used to be the grownup in that room,” mentioned Walker, who will shut his marketing campaign Monday within the GOP-leaning suburbs of Atlanta.
“He’s been speaking about me. He even introduced in a former president to speak about me,” Walker mentioned, referring to Obama’s Oct. 28 go to.
Walker mentioned Warnock, who’s the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, shouldn’t declare to have a Christian ethic whereas implying Walker doesn’t have one.
“He mentioned I’m the liar. I mentioned ‘No, Senator, you’re the liar,’” mentioned Walker, who makes faith a major part of his pitch. “You went to Washington saying you’re going to symbolize Georgia and also you determined to symbolize Joe Biden.”
Walker additionally rejected Biden’s Wednesday speech warning of threats to democracy. “Him being in Washington is the most important menace to democracy,” Walker mentioned of Biden. “The largest menace to democracy is with Sen. Warnock being in Washington representing the nice folks of Georgia. He’s an enormous menace.”
Walker didn’t take questions from reporters and has not held an open press availability because the second abortion allegation, one other level that Warnock sought to capitalize on forward of Tuesday.
“There’s nothing stopping him from standing in entrance of a microphone like I’m standing proper now,” Warnock informed reporters. “The folks of Georgia need to know what sort of man, what sort of individual is he?”
Greater than 2.5 million Georgia voters forged superior ballots, about 20% greater than the quantity who voted early for the 2018 midterms.