Walker won't debate Warnock until it's "for the fans"
Trump endorsed Hershel Walker as the Republican nominee to run against Democratic incumbent Senator Rev Raphael Warnock. Walker has repaid the favor by emulating the 2020 loser’s stream-of-unconscious style of speaking. The listener can hear words. And there seems to be a point. But the thinking is as linear as a butterfly’s intention. And extra words are thrown in, just in case they are needed.
Walker refused to debate his Republican opponents during the GOP primary for the US Senate election in Georgia this year. So far, he has refused to debate Warnock. Warnock has replied by implying that Walker is a coward for refusing to debate him after he said he would anywhere, anytime.
Brian Kilmeade at Fox News, after noting Walker’s failure to debate his primary opponents, asked Walker “why won’t you commit to a debate” with Warnock? Walker replied,
“Well, first of all, Senator Warnock has nothing else to talk about. He don’t want talk about the high gas prices, he don’t want to talk about high groceries. I’ve told him many times I’m ready to debate him any time, any day. I just want to make it for the fans, not about a political party or some media, and all they are doing is talking. I want to make it a fair and equal debate for the people.”
Rational people will point out that if Walker wants Warnock to stop talking about his refusal to debate, the best strategy would be to debate him. If Walker believes that talking about high gas prices and high groceries (I know he means high prices for groceries, but the image of “high” produce is funny) is Kryptonite to Warnock, he should demand they go right there and right then.
But it is standard tactics for someone who knows he comes across as, and might well be, ignorant and befuddled, to insist he is ready to debate without actually ever doing so. And the best way to do that is to whine that the opponent is unwilling to fight fair or is not doing it for the right people.
Walker plays this card by saying he does not want to make it about “a political party or some media”. Instead, he just wants to “make it for the fans”. That is an odd choice of word. But as his claim to fame is he once played a sport at a high level — what the hell.
The conversation then turned to the format, with Kilmeade asking Walker if he was “worried about the moderator”. Walker, lacking the political skill to smash this soft pitch out of the park, failed to use the prompt to slam the lamestream media for using moderators to ‘fix’ debates. Instead, he retreated to his well-rehearsed position, “there’s a lot of outlets that wanna host this debate, and I’m saying let’s get together.”
He added,
”I’m willing to cross the aisle and talk to him about who’s going to host this debate, not do it on his terms, but do it on the terms that the people can see the contrast between he and I, where I don’t want men in women's sports. I’m not gonna have that. I don’t wanna see high gas prices. I wanna see the crime stop. Those are things he voted for which he don’t want to admit, so he needs to answer to that because the Georgia people are talking. They want him to answer questions, not just hearing him to continue to talk to the media.”
He starts well. He appears agreeable. He reasonably claims that the debates should be on neutral terms. He sticks to what has been a good strategy for Republicans by picking on an infinitesimally small population — trans women in women’s sports. And he calls them ‘men’ so the bigots can feel good about themselves by dismissing a severe psycho/physio misalignment as a caprice.
He does not want to see high gas prices. Who does? Although he ignores that the price of a gallon of gas has declined 57¢ over the last six weeks. He wants to see “the crime stop”. Although, so far, his crime-fighting seems to be limited to an imaginary stint in the FBI. A debate would give him a perfect opportunity to expand on that.
Walker’s claim that Warnock will not admit what he voted for is ridiculous when individual votes are a matter of public record — except in voice votes. Has Warnock been involved in any of those? And if Walker has evidence that Warnock voted for crime he should not wait for a debate, he should publicize it right away. No one wants to vote for a politician who is pro-crime.
And Walker says the Georgia people want Warnock to answer questions. So ask them.
Kilmeade tries to clean up, “So you will debate him, you just want to make sure the rules and the moderator is something you wanna have a say in?” Fair enough. Although, are there debates anymore, especially in elections vs. primaries, where the involved parties do not have a say in the rules and moderator?
To which Walker agrees,
“Oh yeah, that’s exactly right. But it seems like he wants to have a say in it because he wants to continue to hide behind other people rather than him getting out, doing what he’s supposed to do as representing the people, which he hasn’t done a good job at it.”
And there you have it.