FOOTAGE: Georgians Call Out Herschel Walker’s Lies About His Charitable Giving

MS Patient: “It just hurts — it hurts to be used as a springboard for somebody trying to make themselves look better. Why would you do that? We’ve got enough problems without being somebody’s lie.”

Today, local non-profit advocates, MS patients, and veterans called out Herschel Walker for lying about “giv[ing] millions of dollars to charities,” including non-profits like the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Boy Scouts of America. The New York Times found “there is scant evidence that Mr. Walker’s giving matched those promises.” 

Download a recording of the event here.

Hear from Georgians speaking out against Walker below:

“The MS Society and the other charities that deal with MS are responsible for people like me being able to get their medications. Everything that goes into me getting my meds is donated money, from businesses, from corporations and from people who care. As easily as [Walker] chose to lie about what he’s doing, he could’ve actually just did it – he could’ve used his celebrity status to raise more money than he did,” said Charles de Young, a Georgian living with multiple sclerosis. “Without donations, without real donations, we have no quality of life. It just hurts — it hurts to be used as a springboard for somebody trying to make themselves look better. Why would you do that? We’ve got enough problems without being somebody’s lie.”

“Non-profits like the one I spent a decade working with do so much good for our communities, and support folks all across this state — but they can only to do so out of the generosity of others,” said State Rep. Mary Robichaux, former non-profit executive. “So for Herschel Walker to claim that he gave ‘millions of dollars to charities,’ when in reality no such donations were made – just to make himself look good – is shameful. What kind of person lies for decades about donating to charities? And why would we trust someone like that to serve in the United States Senate?”

“Over the summer, a report found he’d been lying about founding a charity for veterans struggling with mental health. And I take that actually really personal. When in reality, Walker had made a fortune over the past decade serving as a spokesperson for a private hospital chain’s for-profit program that preyed on veterans and service members while defrauding the government. That doesn’t sit right with me. You know, just preying on folks who made sacrifices to protect our nation, as someone who served in uniform, I find it appalling and disgusting,” said John Jackson, United States Marine Corps veteran, Operation Iraqi Freedom. “This guy’s the last person we need representing our troops, our veterans, our patients, our military families, our kids – and we have a better option than this scammer in November.”

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