Georgia Republican Primary Infighting Gets Worse with “Most Scathing Attacks Yet”

 The Georgia Republican primary is getting even more divisive as Gary Black unleashed the “most scathing attacks yet” on Herschel Walker. Black spoke directly to concerns Republicans in Washington and across Georgia had raised for months, sending “two distinct messages. The first is that he isn’t about to drop out of the race. The second is that he isn’t about to go easy on Walker.”

Read all about the messy infighting in Republicans’ #GASEN primary below:

Inside Gary Black’s all-out attacks against Herschel Walker

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/29/21

• It was an unconventional setting for the most scathing attacks yet in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race.

• Shortly after a tour of nonprofit center for domestic violence victims, Agriculture Secretary Gary Black sat at the head of a long conference table Thursday and proceeded to eviscerate the leading Republican contender in the contest.

• Over the course of 20 minutes, Black said Herschel Walker’s history of violence was “disqualifying” and that the fate of the GOP’s 2022 midterm election – and by extension “the future of this Republic” – hinged on whether the former football star won the nomination to face Sen. Raphael Warnock.

• “I can’t recommend that anyone vote for him with a record like this,” Black said. “Herschel Walker needs to explain himself. Georgians will not tolerate an abuser of women. How can we have this as an example to our next generation, to our young people?”

• Senate Republicans, headlined by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, endorsed Walker’s bid for office. This was a turnabout for McConnell, who had been notably skeptical of Walker’s chances.

• [Black’s] visit to the women’s center, planned for weeks, was intended to send Georgia Republicans two distinct messages. The first is that he isn’t about to drop out of the race. The second is that he isn’t about to go easy on Walker.

• “We need to have this conversation now and Herschel needs to address these reports himself before we hand the Senate to the left on a silver platter again.”

• Black said Walker can’t have it both ways by courting Trump supporters with vague remarks about conservative policies while also issuing platitudes about bipartisanship. And he wants an “honest conversation” about Walker’s history of violent threats against women, including his ex-girlfriend and ex-wife.

• “I’m very interested in knowing now,” he said. “Republican primary voters want to know what they’re getting into.”

• His event Thursday set an aggressive new tone. Shortly before the visit, his campaign sent a trove of documents, including police reports and court records, to dozens of media outlets detailing Walker’s history of violent behavior. Black invoked several of them during his remarks.

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that an ex-girlfriend of Walker’s told police in 2012 that when she tried to end what she said was a long romantic relationship with the football star he threatened to “blow her head off” and then kill himself.

• CNN uncovered a police report from a Texas woman who had been a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader who told authorities in 2002 that Walker had threatened and stalked her.

• That followed reports on allegations from Walker’s ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, who obtained a protective order in 2005 after outlining to a judge his alleged threats to shoot her in the head.

• Black said he needs to reveal more details about his past before he’s anointed the GOP nominee.

• ”When people learn how heinous Herschel’s actions were, he loses,” said Black spokesman Dan McLagan. “The question is whether they learn it now or in the general election when it’s too late for the GOP.”

• The burn-it-down strategy has some Republicans worried Democrats will hijack Black’s broadsides in the heat of a 2022 race that could determine control of the Senate.

• Black, however, indicated that he won’t soon change course.

• “I’m going to make a stand,” he said. “I don’t care if I’m the only one.”

Gary Black Addresses Herschel Walker’s Past as Serial Abuser of Women

All On Georgia, 10/28/21

• Georgia Agriculture Commissioner and U.S. Senate Candidate Gary Black today addressed rival Herschel Walker’s past as a serial abuser of women and suggested Walker face the issue head on in the primary

• “Herschel has threatened women, choked them, stalked them,” Black said. “He has put knives to their throats and guns to their heads, and he claims that he must be innocent because he never went to jail. Well, many of the men who forced women to seek shelter here didn’t go to jail either. That does not make it OK. Had he, as a member of the United States Senate, committed these acts, he would have been removed from office.”

• “This behavior is wrong. Period,” Black continued. 

Gary Black: Senate rival Herschel Walker’s past is ‘disqualifying’

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/28/21

• Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Black ripped into GOP frontrunner Herschel Walker during a visit to a nonprofit for victims of domestic violence Thursday, saying that a history of violent behavior toward women should disqualify the former football star from seeking higher office.

• “If he were a member of the U.S. Senate and if he committed the acts that he’s admitted to, he would be removed from office,” said Black, the state’s three-term agriculture commissioner. “And yes, I do believe those activities, that behavior, is disqualifying.”

• “Desperate campaigns do desperate things. Gary Black’s campaign is struggling, so he has resorted to misleading voters with no regard for the truth,” said Mallory Blount, Walker’s spokeswoman. “This is the exact type of politics Americans hate – and it’s exactly why Herschel is running for Senate.”

• “I do not believe that this type of behavior that Herschel admitted to is going to outweigh the damage and the horror of the abuse of women,” he said, later questioning how the GOP can ask “women or anyone else” to vote for Walker.

• The visit to the Marietta center was meant to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but it was also intended as a backdrop for a scathing attack on Walker’s background.

• While Walker has been candid about his struggles with violent impulses in the past, he has denied threatening both the women.

• “He needs to talk into a microphone like this and he needs to answer reporters directly. He’s accountable to the people in the state of Georgia for that,” said Black.

• “There is so much riding on this race. The future of this Republic hinges on this race, and we can’t have an abuser of women held in this calculation of who wants to serve as a U.S. senator.”

• Black, who has nabbed endorsements from key Georgia Republican leaders, dismissed the decision by McConnell and a half-dozen other Republican U.S. senators who endorsed Walker as a “tremendous miscalculation” by Washington establishment figures.

• “I can’t recommend that anyone vote for him with a record like this,” Black said. “Herschel Walker needs to explain himself. Georgians will not tolerate an abuser of women. How can we have this as an example to our next generation, to our young people?”

Learn more about the festering primary feuds and GOP frustrations around #GASEN.

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