Herschel Walker has noticed Democrats emphasizing threats to democracy, and the Georgia Republican apparently wants to contribute to the conversation. For example, the Senate hopeful appeared on Fox News on Friday night and shared these thoughts:
“The biggest threat to democracy is to have Sen. [Raphael] Warnock out there, to have Senator Warnock voting to put men in women’s sports. That’s the biggest threat to democracy.”
Well, no, actually it’s not. Decisions about transgender athletes aren’t made by senators — the GOP candidate appeared to be referring to a Senate vote that never happened — and none of this relates to the health, stability, or durability of our democracy.
And so, on Sunday morning, Walker tried again, pointing to what he sees as a different threat during another Fox News appearance.
“When you have a president talking about the biggest threat to democracy, it seems to be to electing a Republican. But I want everyone that is listening to me, the biggest threat to democracy is to have him at the White House. “
Why is President Joe Biden a threat to democracy? Walker didn’t get around to explaining his rationale, probably because he didn’t have one.
Eventually, the Georgian gave this one last try.
“The biggest threat to democracy is to have someone like Senator Warnock that voted against our Keystone pipeline, which put us in an international threat. I think, right now, that’s a threat, and it’s a security threat. We’re going to our enemies to ask for energy. That’s a threat. That’s the biggest threat to democracy there.”
For the record, the idea that the Keystone XL pipeline has created “an international threat” is not to be taken seriously. Politico reported last week, “President Joe Biden’s regulators have approved new oil and gas wells at a far faster pace than the Trump administration did during its first 21 months in office — a fact that undermines Republican election-year arguments about the causes of this year’s high gasoline prices. The U.S. has also produced more crude oil since Biden’s inauguration than it had done during the equivalent period of former President Donald Trump’s presidency.” But even putting these details aside, why in the world would anyone see this as “the biggest threat to democracy”? It’s as if Walker has been encouraged to think of random things that bother him, and then just add “the biggest threat to democracy” to the end of the sentence. Follow our 2022 midterm elections live blog at msnbc.com/midterms beginning Nov. 7 for the latest results, news and expert analysis in real time.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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