Reality look at: Ga prospect Herschel Walker is a serial promoter of fake 2020 conspiracy theories

Walker is not the only applicant for the Republican Senate nomination in Georgia to problem the legitimacy of the 2020 success. But Walker has been specifically prolific and distinct in his election-associated dishonesty — and he has by significantly the most significant megaphone. Walker has uttered wrong conspiracy theories on equally Fox News and on Twitter, where by he has much more than 445,000 followers.

And his dishonesty has not been limited to the subject matter of the election. Walker has also promoted untrue conspiracy theories about the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and about Democrats.

Walker’s campaign did not reply to requests for remark for this posting.

Conspiracy theories about the 2020 election

A false claim about Biden votes

Throughout a Fox News overall look in December, Walker said, “I can promise you, Joe Biden failed to get 50 million persons voting for him. But still men and women assume that he’s won this election.”
Biden did gain the election — with extra than 81 million votes.

Bogus promises of mass fraud

In a tweet on January 4, two times before Congress achieved to rely the 2020 electoral votes, Walker falsely alleged that there was “Country large election fraud.” Walker named for Trump and “Accurate PATRIOTS” to perform a “overall cleansing” — he failed to demonstrate what he intended — and ongoing, “Let us get back to serious Legislation & Order and prosecute all the bad actors. Whatever it usually takes to get the occupation carried out.”
Even senior officers from the Trump administration have acknowledged that there was no widespread or consequence-altering fraud in the 2020 election. But Walker repeatedly reported or advised that fraud was pervasive and that unspecified individuals had manipulated the election.
In a tweet on November 6, a few times following Election Day, Walker wrote, “To be the gentleman, you gotta defeat the person, not CHEAT the gentleman.” In a tweet on January 6, immediately after the Capitol was attacked by pro-Trump rioters, Walker reported he preferred Trump to get to the bottom of “who stole this election.”
Walker reported on Twitter in December that Georgia ought to refuse to certify Biden’s victory there mainly because of “serious Election Fraud,” inquiring in a video “how can we certify a thing that we know is not right.” In one more tweet in November, Walker wrote that “persons playing with this election will need to be punished for breaking the law.”

A baseless phone for a re-vote

In an further November 6 tweet, Walker baselessly recommended that the effects of the voting in seven critical states, which include six gained by Biden, have been undemocratic. He proposed that the nation toss out all of the votes in these states.

“In its place of us fighting and heading to court, why will not we have Nevada, Arizona, Ga, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin vote all over again? We can have it performed inside a 7 days, and preserve our democracy,” he wrote.

A conspiracy principle about altered votes

On November 8, Walker tweeted, “Everyone employing HAMMER SCORECARD to change voting in our America election should really be prosecuted.”

No one applied anything known as “HAMMER SCORECARD” to change votes in the election. This is an solely baseless conspiracy idea — about meant vote-stealing computer software developed by US intelligence — whose origins have been connected to a gentleman with a background of wrong claims.
A Trump-appointed top rated cybersecurity official, Chris Krebs, referred to as Hammer and Scorecard claims “a hoax,” “nonsense,” and “not a serious matter” in the times just before Walker’s tweet. (Trump fired Krebs significantly less than two months later on about his general public debunkings of bogus fraud promises.)

The Dominion conspiracy principle and Sidney Powell

In late November, Walker tweeted that if pro-Trump law firm Sidney Powell was proper “about some of our Elected Officials understanding about Dominion yet did absolutely nothing and claimed nothing..they will need to resign their positions and in no way run for an additional business in the US and possibly some end up in jail. Our Democracy is at stake!”
Conspiracy theories about the voting technologies corporation Dominion Voting Techniques experienced now been widely debunked at the time. Dominion has filed defamation satisfies against Powell and some others who promoted bogus claims about the corporation.
The day soon after this Walker tweet, the Trump campaign disavowed Powell, who had been extensively mocked for building particularly outlandish conspiratorial statements about the election. But Walker was undeterred. He tweeted, “I however have a great deal of faith in Sidney Powell.” Afterwards that day, Walker tweeted, “All you Doubters will be shocked when @SidneyPowell1 lays the SMACKDOWN on many of the folks you have trustworthy for yrs!”

A untrue declare about Ga ballots

In December, Walker tweeted a photo of an Georgia absentee ballot application and a photograph of an envelope that was tackled to another person at a county jail in the state. He wrote, “So now we obtain GA mailed ballots to prisons?” He asked Ga Secretary of Condition Brad Raffensperger “how a lot things has to be uncovered right before investigations.”

Walker was incorrect very little experienced been “exposed” listed here.

Initially: Compared with absentee ballots them selves, Ga ballot apps can be printed out by any one, not just election officials, and mailed to any one else. This software was mailed by an impartial team, not by Raffensperger.

Next: There is very little inherently incorrect with somebody in a county jail becoming despatched a ballot software or even a ballot by itself. Only people today serving felony sentences are ineligible to vote in Ga. Folks convicted of misdemeanors or awaiting felony trials — in other phrases, the varieties of folks who are generally incarcerated in county jails — are allowed to vote.

Other conspiracy theories

A conspiracy idea about why the Capitol riot took place

On the afternoon of January 6, Walker tweeted a phony suggestion that the Capitol riot was orchestrated by persons who wanted to prevent the discussion about election fraud.

“Have you found were not conversing about election fraud and election integrity now? Appears like this was perfectly prepared to shut all the things down and run the clock out,” Walker wrote.

Nonsense. The riot was perpetrated by Trump supporters, not by men and women wanting to silence Trump supporters. The Office of Justice has charged extra than 575 people so considerably.

A conspiracy theory about members in the riot

In an additional tweet on January 6, Walker posted a Capitol picture that showcased rioters which include distinctively dressed “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley. Walker falsely advised that these people today were not really Trump supporters — contacting them “Trojan horses” and declaring “they do not appear like MAGA.”
Walker also posted an impression that zoomed in on the tattoo on the hand of a person standing beside Chansley in the first picture, William Watson. Some other people on the suitable had claimed that the tattoo was of a communist hammer and sickle image.
In truth, both equally Chansley and Watson have been Trump supporters. And as the internet site Alabama Political Reporter noted, Watson proceeded to individually debunk phony theories about both his motivations and the tattoo — outlining on Snapchat that the tattoo is a symbol from a video clip recreation (known as Dishonored).

A conspiracy idea about Black Lives Make a difference and Democrats

In a Twitter online video in September, Walker experimented with to drive a baffling and baseless conspiracy concept about cash staying sent from the Chinese govt to Black Lives Make any difference and then “to the Democratic Party.”
“Why does it seem like I’m the only one particular that is coming up with this?” Walker claimed in the video clip, which was pointed out in March by the conservative internet site The Bulwark.
Perhaps since the concept doesn’t make sense. Walker’s assert relied on a elementary misunderstanding of ActBlue — an on line fundraising system for a huge variety of Democratic candidates and progressive entities — and, if we were being knowing him properly, a fake declare that a Chinese-American group in California is a “organization from China.”