The Great Herschel Walker on Flipping the Senate

CLAY: We bring in now Herschel Walker, who is going head-to-head with the Reverend Raphael Warnock in Georgia. And, Herschel, I want to say right off the top: What’s it feel like to be a national champion Georgia Bulldog again?

WALKER: Well, that feels great, because the Georgia Dawgs went out and played, they played an incredible game. But let’s give it to Alabama too. Alabama has had a great run and had a great team as well. But it was a Georgia year, it was the Braves’ year, and it’s gonna be the Herschel Walker year.

CLAY: All right. So, you’re on the trail all the time, all over the state of Georgia. I saw you all over the state of Georgia in the fall with football going on, big events all over the place. What are you hearing from the people of Georgia on the ground, and what are they telling you?

WALKER: Well, the people are upset, and they got every reason to be upset when you have crime that is rising. The supply line is really terrible. You have the economy the way it is right now. And they got every reason to be upset, and you can’t blame ’em, right? You can’t blame ’em when there’s people fighting over things — and that’s one thing you all have been saying for a long time. We gotta bring adults in the room, get this country back on its feet, because this is a good place — the state of Georgia is a good place — but we cannot continue to have this separation. We gotta have people that are able to communicate. That’s the way you get things done.

BUCK: Herschel, it’s Buck. You mentioned the economy, where we are right now and where we should be. CBS News, one of the big legacy media outlets, in response to what’s going on overseas put out this just in the last 24 hours. “The U.S. economy has been hit with increased gas prices, inflation, and supply chain issues due to the Ukraine crisis.” I gotta say, Herschel, that Ukraine crisis apparently stretches back for, well, the beginning of the Biden presidency! It’s remarkable how that happens.

WALKER: Well, it’s so funny. That’s why people like you, you two guys, you’re doing a great job, because you give people an opportunity to tell the truth. Right now for them to put out an article like that is a shame when Ukraine had nothing to do with this inflation, had nothing to do with this economy. Those are bad policies on Biden’s side, and I think people gotta remember that, and for the Georgia people, they gotta remember that right now that Senator Warnock has voted right along with Biden almost 95% of the time.

Right now, he’s doing all these great commercials showing how he’s caring for the people, but he’s only caring for ’em because it’s election year. He’s not gonna do anything for ’em and that’s why I want people to realize that. We gotta get back to great marketing on the right, ’cause the left can do some incredible, incredible marketing. Right now, they’re blaming Ukraine for this inflation!

It’s got nothing to do with this economy, nothing to do with inflation. Sooner or later, they’re gonna be saying that Ukraine is the fault for kids not going to school here in Georgia. You know, right now they cannot continue to say things like that and misleading the people. And that’s the reason I wanted to run. I want people to know the truth and really because there’s good people and they can decide for themselves.

CLAY: Herschel, you’ve got also obviously you’re running for the Senate against Warnock, as you just mentioned. There’s a battle right now for who is going to be the Republican governor candidate, whether it’s gonna be Brian Kemp or David Perdue. What are you trying to do as those guys battle in the primary to see who the Republican representative is gonna be? Do you have a preference? How are you handling that?

WALKER: Well, I worry about my race. I told people I’m upset because we got some strong candidates running. Right now, we gotta bring people together. We cannot continue to go out there and fight among each other when we got this country that is hurting. You got kids on the street that is dying. You got kids not in school, got all these problems going on. But yet we got these intersquad fighting. Right now, I told someone, I said, “When you’re on a team, I don’t care if the receiver score a touchdown, we both — we all — win the game.”

Right now, that’s the reason I think we got two Democratic senators in Georgia right now because they had these people fighting among each other. And I say, “I want to bring people together. We gotta come together. Win for the people within not for ourselves, win for the people, get this country back to going,” because there are good people here and the way we can get it done is by doing it together.

CLAY: Who is the better golfer, Herschel?

WALKER: (laughing)

CLAY: I know you’ve got a big event going on with Trump down at Mar-a-Lago. We were just there yesterday with 45, former president. I believe you’ve got a big fundraiser, you’re working with Donald Trump down in Mar-a-Lago. Who’s gonna have the better golf outing?

WALKER: Well, I do ’til March 2nd — and I ask everyone out there listening to go to my website on TeamHerschel.com, and enter and you can come down to play golf or you just have a Coke with me and stuff. You just have to enter and come down to play — and you say, “Who’s the better golfer?” and I’m gonna say I can play, and if you just hear me say, “I can play,” and he plays a lot. I’m out on the campaign, he’s playing golf; so that’s a little bit different. I’m working while he’s playing golf.

BUCK: Herschel you’re a guy who’s used to winning some very, very big games, used to winning in general. If you are able to become a senator from the great state of Georgia, what does a winning record look like in your own mind? What are you gonna try to accomplish?

WALKER: One thing I want to try to accomplish, very first thing, is let’s bring some integrity back to our elected officials. I think that’s one of the first thing. And we we gotta bring this party together, get some people to start trusting in our elected officials again because one of the things: It’s not about us. It should be about the customers. I learned that in my business. The customer comes first. Right now, we’re working for the people. You’re not working for yourself.

That’s the first thing I want to do. And then we gotta get a lot of other things under control. Right now, things aren’t going well right now because of some of the terrible policies that are happening just within a year. That’s what people don’t realize. They’ve only been in office for a year, and you see what’s going on in this country, and we can’t have that. We cannot have what’s happening right now. So right now I like to bring some integrity back where people can trust in our elected officials.

CLAY: Herschel, we appreciate the time, my man. I know that it is a hectic campaign season. Look forward to seeing you down there in Georgia. I’m gonna come down for some Braves games if they can actually get the baseball season started up again. I know you got a headquarters not far from Battery Park there in Atlanta, so I look forward to seeing you down there.

WALKER: Well, thank you so much, and let everyone go to TeamHerschel.com. Win this fight. I’m gonna be in it to the end, I’m gonna win it. As I told them all the time, “I’m Ricky Bobby right now: I’m in this race here to win.”

BUCK: Herschel, thanks so much for being with us, man. We hope ear gonna come out on time. Thank you we appreciate it.

WALKER: Thank you and God bless.

BUCK: Clay, now that we just had Herschel on, I can ask you: What’s the special, like, rallying cry for the Georgia team? ‘Cause I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. All I know… You’ve taught me Roll Tide so far. What’s the…?

CLAY: Yeah, they’ve got a lot of great things. First of all, the barking, right? The dog barking for the Georgia Bulldogs. Grown men spend a lot of time barking. And so —

BUCK: Okay. (laughing)

CLAY: — it is maybe unexpected to see a grown man barking as if he is a Georgia Bulldog. But it’s since 1980. Herschel Walker won a National Championship with Georgia 42 years ago, and they finally have vanquished that demon and have won another title a couple of generations later. And like he said, the Braves won a championship, and I think Herschel is gonna flip the Senate back in the state of Georgia to Republican Party hands.

BUCK: Right. We’ve had, in the last 24 hours, Adam Laxalt’s running out of Nevada, and Herschel Walker running in Georgia.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: If you look at the Senate map, if we want control… Look, I think the House… I don’t want to jinx anything. The House looking good for Republicans. But it has to look amazing when the results are in, or else Clay and I are gonna be upset. We’re gonna give ourselves a time-out ’cause we haven’t done enough. It would have to be an absolute shellacking. But the Senate is gonna be tight, folks. It shall is tight, right? We’re talking about a handful of races, a handful of seats: Nevada and Georgia and Herschel Walker.

CLAY: Those are the two that we have the best chance with right now because we have some contested primaries, but to flip because those are Democratic seats, Nevada like yesterday we talked about with Adam Laxalt and with Herschel Walker in Georgia.