DSCC Statement On Bombshell Report That Herschel Walker Lied About Charitable Donations

In response to bombshell reporting from The New York Times – featured on today’s frontpage – revealing that Walker “pledged that 15 percent of profits would go to charities… but there is scant evidence that Mr. Walker’s giving matched those promises,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Amanda Sherman-Baity issued the following statement:

“Walker’s lies about his charitable donations are the latest in a constant stream of revelations demonstrating that he is not who he says he is, isn’t up for the job, and has no business representing Georgians in the U.S. Senate.”

See the coverage for yourself:

The New York Times, A1: Walker’s Business Pledged Gifts To Charities, but Proof Is Scant

• Mr. Walker, a former football star, pledged that 15 percent of profits would go to charities, a promise the company said was “part of its corporate charter.” For years, Mr. Walker’s company named four specific charities as beneficiaries of those donations, including the Boy Scouts of America and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

• But there is scant evidence that Mr. Walker’s giving matched those promises. When The New York Times contacted those four charities, one declined to comment and the other three said they had no record or recollection of any gifts from the company in the last decade.

• Walker, who is facing Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in his first bid for public office, has been dogged by repeated instances in which he was found to have given misleading or outright false details about his life story.

• He falsely claimed to have graduated “in the top 1 percent” of his class at the University of Georgia, when in fact he had not graduated at all: He left the university after his junior year to play professional football. He also said he had “worked in law enforcement” when he had not.

• And Mr. Walker said in 2020 that his food-distribution company, Renaissance Man Food Services, employed about 800 people. Earlier that year, it had listed just eight employees when it applied for and received a $111,300 loan from a federal program to assist companies through the pandemic.

• “At this point, it’s clear that pretty much everything Herschel Walker says bears no resemblance to the truth,” Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a written statement.

MSNBC – All In With Chris Hayes (WATCH): NYT: Scant Proof Of Herschel Walker Company Donations

• Hayes: “Herschel Walker may be among the most unqualified, if not the most unqualified, candidate running to serve in public office – not only because he seems just incapable of answering even the most basic policy questions, but because he appears to lie almost instinctually.”

The Hill: Herschel Walker exaggerated claims about charity donations: NYT

• Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker exaggerated claims about charity donations his company made to at least four organizations, The New York Times reported Thursday.

• Walker has also been accused of exaggerating other details about his life. The candidate once said he graduated in the top 1 percent of his class, but he in fact never graduated from college, instead going to play for the NFL. Walker also claimed he worked for law enforcement and said he had employed 800 people through RMSF in 2020, which actually had eight employees that year.

The Daily Beast: NYT Finds Little Proof to Back Up Herschel Walker’s Charitable Claims

• An investigation by The New York Times found “scant evidence” that a food-distribution company belonging to Herschel Walker, the Republican senatorial candidate in Georgia, actually donates a portion of its profits to charity, a supposedly core “part of its corporate charter” that Walker has boasted of in the past.

• Around 2007, according to the Times, Walker began professing that Renaissance Man Food Services would donate “fifteen perfect” of profits to charity. “I think it’s my responsibility to share the blessing with others,” he told a magazine.

• Between then and 2017, Renaissance Man named four charities as designated beneficiaries—the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Special Olympics, PE4Life, the Boy Scouts of America—among several other unnamed ones. Three of those charities said they had no evidence of any significant donations in the last ten years.

MSNBC: Herschel Walker’s charitable donations become his latest controversy

• Herschel Walker pledged that 15% of his business’ profits would go to charities. It appears, once again, the Republican failed to keep his word.

• The most damaging of Herschel Walker’s lies tend to involve the Senate candidate himself. The Georgia Republican, for example, has said he was a University of Georgia graduate, but that wasn’t true. He said he was his high school’s valedictorian, but that wasn’t true. He repeatedly claimed to have a background in law enforcement, but those claims simply weren’t true. Walker hasn’t even told the truth about the number of children he has.

• But just as dramatic are the Senate hopeful’s claims about his background in the private sector. Walker is already on record telling false claims about being the founder of a charity for veterans.

• The Associated Press reported last summer that Walker’s record includes “exaggerated claims of financial success” and a history of alarming business associates with his “unpredictable behavior.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a related report in March, highlighting the false claims, lawsuits, and unpaid loans as part of Walker’s private-sector background.

• A month later, The Daily Beast advanced the story further, noting the first-time candidate’s “particularly egregious” lies about his business experience, which “appear to bear no resemblance to reality whatsoever.”

• Given that the GOP candidate tends to point to his business record as proof of his Senate qualifications, this seems like a rather significant problem.
  
  

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