As early voting began Saturday in the run-off election in Georgia for the final U.S. Senate seat up for grabs in 2022, MSNBC’s Velshi brought on left-wing media personality Roland Martin to talk up the importance of voting for Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock while hurling insults at GOP challenger Herschel Walker.
“Herschel Walker is grossly unqualified and has no business being anywhere near the United States Senate,” Martin seethed, while condemning Republican voters as uninterested in character. “It doesn’t matter what Herschel Walker has done when it comes to paying for abortions. I mean, look at one of the women who says she has an audiotape of him as well; that had barely a ripple. Republicans do not care. They do not care.”
Martin, who bragged that he’d be in Georgia campaigning alongside Black Voters Matter through December 6, pitched MSNBC’s audience on the need for the Democrats to win this seat, as a way to bolster their Senate majority in advance of the 2024 cycle: “Keep in mind, whoever wins wins a six-year term. If you are Democrat, you are going to want that seat because 2024 is going to be a tough road map as well. So you want a win wherever you can get a win.”
Below are excerpts from the November 26 exchange on MSNBC’s Velshi (click expand).
Host ALI VELSHI: Roland, talk to me about this race and what your take is on where we are and how it’s going. You know, Herschel Walker, every couple of days something interesting happens with this guy.
ROLAND MARTIN: You use the word “interesting” four different times. I’d probably use the different word. Look, at the end the day, Republican simply do not care. What they wanted was someone who could match the popularity of Senator Raphael Warnock. There was some no doubt that they were deliberate to get an African American to run.
Look at the revelation that he just took a tax break based upon his home in Texas, yet he’s claiming to be Georgia. This sounds like Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania really being from New Jersey, but running in Pennsylvania as well.
But the bottom line is here that Herschel Walker is grossly unqualified and has no business being anywhere near the United States Senate. But remember, Republicans have one of the dumbest people in America, Tommy Tuberville as a U.S. Senator from Alabama. And so again, they really don’t care. It is about the issue of power, about being in control.
And what Democrats need to understand, I’ve even heard some Democrats say, “Hey, we control the Senate, Georgia is not that important.” Keep in mind, whoever wins wins a six-year term. If you are Democrat, you are going to want that seat because 2024 is going to be a tough road map as well. So you want a win wherever you can get a win.
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VELSHI: Raphael Warnock is a very disciplined guy. He’s a good orator, obviously, he is a preacher. But he is actually keeping a lower key in this campaign. He’s talking about policy more than anything else. In his debate with Herschel Walker — that Herschel Walker claims he cleaned the floor with Warnock [Martin snickers] — Warnock just sort of kept to himself. His strategy seems to be, “let Herschel be Herschel.”
MARTIN: Well, but you also have advisors saying, “look, if you go too hard after Herschel Walker, you make him sympathetic.” I disagree with that. I think you have to expose him as well. But remember, he is operating as the incumbent. This is not 2020, where he was running to defeat Kelly Loeffler. You had Ossoff running against David Perdue. And so his whole deal is “I’m the United States Senator.” So he wants to be able to project that in talking about policy.
But the reality is, it also is going to come down to — for Republicans, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what Herschel Walker has done when it comes to paying for abortions. I mean, look at one of the women who says she has an audiotape of him as well; that had barely a ripple. Republicans do not care. They do not care.
And so that’s not what’s going to be the difference. This is going to be, who can get the vote out. It’s going to be a ground war. You can run all the ads on television that you want to, but they’ve got to be doing massive door knocking. That is what it’s gonna boil down to, and that is why the Warnock campaign is being very strategic in terms of really hitting the ground all across the state.
MSNBC’s in-kind contribution to the Warnock campaign was brought to you by Arby’s and Verizon. The DNC didn’t have to pay a penny.
