ICYMI: Six Months Out, #GASEN Primary Infighting Intensifies as Black Runs “Scorched Earth” Campaign Against Walker

The Georgia Republican primary got messier in the past week as Gary Black unleashed the “most scathing attacks yet” on Herschel Walker — bringing up Walker’s past incidents of domestic violence. Republicans in Washington and across Georgia have raised these same concerns over Walker’s checkered past for months. Here’s the latest from the GOP #GASEN primary:

• Black going “scorched earth,” calling Walker’s damaging history of abuse “disqualifying.” Last week, Gary Black ramped up attacks on Herschel Walker in Georgia’s GOP primary. Black, who has nabbed endorsements from key Georgia Republican leaders, took direct aim at Walker’s “disqualifying” history while dismissing the decision by McConnell and other Republican U.S. senators to endorse Walker as a “tremendous miscalculation.” As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and All On Georgia report, the three-term Agriculture Commissioner isn’t holding back: 

• “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?”

• “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.

• “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.”

• “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.

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

• Black calls Walker’s immigration position a “disaster.” Gary Black’s campaign is calling Walker’s immigration record a “disaster for America” and paying to amplify criticism of Walker’s position on airwaves across the state. As seen and heard on Savannah’s WJCL 22: “A U.S. Senate candidate from Georgia is firing shots at his opponent. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black shared an ad…targeting Herschel Walker. It said, in part, ‘Walker…supports amnesty and citizenship for illegals.’”

• Walker brushing off Black’s experience. Even though Herschel Walker’s over two months in the race have been characterized as “a whole lot of nothing,” the Trump-tapped candidate has made a point of criticizing the three-term Agriculture Commissioner’s qualifications. When asked in a recent interview what has personally prepared him to run for Senate, Walker quipped “What gives a person in agriculture experience to run?” And in his speech at the Trump rally last month, Walker once again took aim at Black: “What qualifies a farmer to run for [Senate]?”

Read more about the messy GOP infighting and festering primary feuds in #GASEN.

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