‘They Don’t Want a Thinking Black Senator’: Joy Reid Says GOP Using Herschel Walker as a ‘Prop’ Who Will ‘Nod’ Along
Joy Reid claimed White Republicans are using Herschel Walker as a “prop” in the U.S. Senate race in Georgia. The MSNBC host said on Thursday that Republicans “don’t want a thinking Black senator,” but rather one they can control.
The former football star notched the GOP nomination and is running to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is also Black.
“This is what double bothers me about the people who have been trotted out to endorse Herschel Walker,” she said. “You have Tom Cotton, who said slavery was not so bad, it was a necessary evil. He doesn’t give a damn about Black people. You have Rick Scott, who has already threatened that he’s going to attack corporations that wouldn’t donate to Republicans.”
Reid turned her ire toward Sen. Lindsey Graham, who, like Cotton and Scott, has also campaigned for Walker.
“And now, Lindsey Graham, who when he had the opportunity to elevate an actual Black United States senator and allow him to make a contribution, he undercut his fellow South Carolina senator and destroyed the bill that he was building,” she continued. “If he respects Black men, then why didn’t he let [Sen.] Tim Scott have that victory and have a legacy of his own? He undercut it.”
Reid concluded, “It’s showing you they don’t want a thinking Black senator. He’s too much for them. They were like, ‘You can be here and wave quietly and silently wave, Tim Scott, but the minute you try to legislate, Lindsey Graham – your fellow South
Carolina senator – is going to cut the legs out from under you.’ What they want is Herschel, who’s gonna sit there quietly and nod, and nod, and nod while he’s being pointed to as if he is a prop.”
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele agreed.
“They have someone that they can ultimately control,” he said. “They have someone who is not going to be an independent voice for the people of Georgia.”
He added that other Republicans will be in Walker’s ear, “telling him always what to do and what to think and what to say.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
