In Wake of Uvalde Shooting, “Herschel Walker fumbles gun control response — twice”

One week since becoming Georgia Republicans’ nominee for U.S. Senate, Herschel Walker has already shown Georgians how unprepared he is to be a U.S. Senator. This time, it’s his comments in the wake of the Uvalde massacre. First, when a CNN reporter asked about what gun violence prevention measures Walker would support, he said, “what I like to do is see it and everything and stuff,” and then — less than 48 hours later — Walker told Fox News that he’d propose a new federal department to look into people’s social media as a solution to school shootings. Everyone — from the AJC and Fox 5’s Georgia Gang to Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel — is reacting.

From serious policy gaffes with friendly interviewers and continued lies about the 2020 election to increasing scrutiny of his business ties and fraudulent “charity” for veterans, Walker is wasting no time showing voters he’s wrong for Georgia.

• Watch Walker’s first botched attempt to answer a question on gun policy — viewed more than 1.6 million times.

• Watch Walker’s second fumbling answer to address mass shootings, less than 48 hours later — now viewed more than 4.5 million times. 

• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: “People who are running for the Senate are also struggling with what to do or say — especially Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who was asked about solving gun violence and made these noises…It’s high time we create the Federal Bureau of Looking at Young Men who are Looking at Women who are Looking at Social Media.”

• Jimmy Kimmel Live: “Herschel Walker, who won the Georgia Republican primary for Senate and beamed in this morning with Fox and Friends to share his well-formed thoughts on how to prevent another deadly shooting…Quite a journey through the mind he took us on. So we can ‘stop doing a disinformation’ and get a ‘department of looking into these men that are looking at women’ and we should be fine.”

• Fox 5’s Georgia Gang: “[Walker] totally just fumbles the response on gun control. And then he goes on Fox News, where you can’t be any safer as a Republican than Fox News, and then makes one of the most bizarre comments about what he plans to do on gun control…A man who is clearly…unprepared to be a candidate for U.S. Senate.”

• And more coverage in Georgia and across the country:

• AJC: “Herschel Walker fumbles gun control response — twice”. “Twice in recent days Walker has fumbled questions on gun control: In one interview he seemed to suggest monitoring young people’s social media activity, and in another he dodged the question altogether.”

• MSNBC: On school shootings, Herschel Walker tries (and fails) again. “Over the course of 48 hours, this U.S. Senate candidate and his team had time to come up with his position on this life-or-death issue. Walker then sat down with an overly friendly media outlet, and pitched creating a federal agency that would apparently be responsible for surveilling ‘young men that’s looking at women that looking at social media.’”

• Washington Examiner: Herschel Walker fumbles response to gun control questions. ​​“Georgia’s GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker fumbled two responses to questions about his stance on gun control this week in the aftermath of a shooting at a Texas elementary school.”

• Rolling Stone: Herschel Walker’s Response to the Uvalde Shooting Was Incoherent. So Is His Senate Bid. “The hollow incoherence on display here is sadly typical of the man.”

• Business Insider: GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker proposes ‘a department that can look at young men that’s looking at women that’s looking at social media’ in response to Texas shooting. “Earlier this week, Walker struggled to answer a question on gun control from a CNN reporter, only going as far to say, ‘What I like to do is see it and everything and stuff.’”

• CNN: Herschel Walker’s answer on gun violence is literally nonsensical. “To have such an uninformed view on such a critical issue is, in that context, unforgivable.”

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