In Friday’s crucial Georgia Senate race debate, all eyes were on how anti-abortion activist Herschel Walker would fare against Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock after an explosive report from The Daily Beast this month revealed that Walker had paid to an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion. in 2009.
The last-second bombshell dropped in a tight race that could ultimately decide which party controls the Senate, the latest in a long list of scandals that have rocked the former footballer’s campaign. Walker and his campaign have continually denied allegations of paying for abortion.
But on Friday, Walker got a pass from his opponent Raphael Warnock, who never pressed the Republican about the accusation.
Instead, another claim by Walker caught the attention of viewers across the country: the moment he broke the rules of the debate by holding up an alleged police badge in response to a Warnock zinger.
“One thing I haven’t done: I’ve never pretended to be a police officer. And I’ve never threatened a shootout with the police,” Warnock shot back at Walker in one of the most tense moments of the debate.
In response, the Republican pulled a large black badge with a gold star from his breast pocket for just a brief moment.
“I’m working (sic) with a lot of cops,” he exclaimed.
It was the latest of many insinuations of Walker working as a law enforcement agent, although there is no actual evidence that this was ever the case, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In the debate, the moderator quickly jumped on the candidate for breaking the rules of the exchange by producing a prop.
“It’s not a prop,” Walker doubled down. “It’s real.”
The moment naturally led from disbelief to total internet trolling of the viral moment.
“To be fair to Herschel Walker, I sometimes take off my Star Fleet badge to get past security at Star Trek conferences,” George Takei, a Star Trek actor, wrote on Twitter.
Many also compared the moment to a child’s imagination.
“Just like Herschel Walker, I’ve also been flashing a toy badge and pretending to be a sheriff. Then I turned 5,” read a tweet from the Palmer Report.
“Herschel Walker pulling out a fake badge and calling himself a cop five is how my son calls himself a ‘pilot’ because real pilots handed him a wing pin and showed him around the cockpit,” wrote Elie Mystal , correspondent for The Nation.
A meme creator also leaned into film and television, superimposing Walker on classics like The X-Files and Tombstone.
Walker has claimed to have worked for local and federal law enforcement several times over the years, including claiming to work as a police officer and to have trained with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, there is evidence that he at least planned to attend a training course at Quantico, but would need a college degree if he were to be an FBI agent, which he does not have.
Walker’s campaign provided 1989 Associated Press stories in which Walker himself referred to running an obstacle course with other FBI recruits to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Walker’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request from The Daily Beast to further corroborate his attendance at the FBI course.
In a post-debate interview with News Nation, Walker again produced the badge, which Leland Vittert read as being from Johnson County. And Walker repeated a past defense, which was that he was “joking” about being an FBI agent and that he “never said I went out to do anything” but has “worked with” many law enforcement agencies in the county .
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s attempts to confirm the badge’s validity.
Walker’s campaign previously told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he was an honorary deputy in Cobb County, Georgia, as well as three other unnamed counties, but neither the Cobb County police nor sheriff’s departments could support the claim.
An honorary badge “gives you absolutely no authority to enforce the law,” former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan told The Atlanta Constitution-Journal.
“It’s like a junior ranger badge.”
Walker’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.