Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker backs out of Marjorie Taylor Greene rally after she spoke at white nationalist conference

John L. Dorman

March 1, 2022 at 2:22 PM·4 min read

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker backed out of an event featuring Greene, per the AJC.
Walker's campaign said he wouldn't attend an upcoming rally in Rome, Georgia.
The move comes as GOP leaders reject any ties between party members and white nationalist figures.

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker on Tuesday backed out of an upcoming event organized by conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the aftermath of her appearance at a white nationalist rally where attendees cheered Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Walker — the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock's seat — was slated to speak at the congresswoman's "Second Amendment and Freedom Rally" in Rome on Saturday.

Other planned guests include Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Georgia senator and current gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, and other individuals with ties to far-right organizations, The AJC reported.

However, Walker's campaign told the newspaper that he wouldn't attend the rally, which will focus on access to guns throughout the state.

Walker's move come as other Republicans across the country, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have rejected the influence of white supremacist organizations within the party.

"There's no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism," McConnell said in a statement on Monday after being asked by a reporter about the appearances.

But the Republican leader — who endorsed Walker's Senate bid last year — did not mention any lawmakers by name.

McCarthy, who has been criticized by many for failing to rein in Greene following earlier controversies over her comparison of mask mandates to the Holocaust, said that it was "unacceptable" for Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar to speak at the America First Political Action Conference in Florida this past weekend.

One of the event's organizers was Nick Fuentes, who has a history of making racist and antisemitic remarks.

Last year, Gosar was also a speaker at the America First conference, where Fuentes spoke of a desire to shield "the white demographic core." And this year, Fuentes called on attendees to give a "round of applause for Russia" as Putin escalates his invasion of Ukraine.

The House Republican leader — who is angling to become House Speaker after the midterm elections — reiterated that white nationalist ideology is unwelcome in the party.

"For me it was appalling and wrong. And there's no place in our party for any of this," said McCarthy. "The party should not be associated any time any place with somebody who is anti-Semitic."

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, on Sunday criticized both Greene and Gosar.

"Morons. I have morons on my team," he said of the two lawmakers. "And I have to think anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points."

In Georgia, where Greene represents a congressional district anchored in the northwest corner of the state, her appearance at the pro-Putin event was slammed by several GOP leaders — including one of Walker's opponents.

Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who has spoken out against the influence of former President Donald Trump within the party, on Monday rejected any praise of Putin.

"Vladimir Putin is a selfish, brutal dictator and anybody who would tell you otherwise is lying," he said in the chamber of the Georgia Senate at the state Capitol in Atlanta. "I call on this country, I call on this state, I call on this chamber to stand in support of the Ukrainian country as they fight for freedom."

And state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, who's facing off against Walker in the Senate race, called Greene's worldview "poison."

"Her ideas, her associations and her utter lack of wisdom and judgment are a poison in the bloodstream of our party," he told the Journal-Constitution. "I believe this behavior is a distraction and an embarrassment."

Read the original article on Business Insider

AFP
Pakistani separatists kill 25 in railway station blast
A bombing claimed by Pakistani separatists killed 25 people including 14 soldiers at a railway station in the southwestern Balochistan province, police said Saturday.Despite frequent attacks in Balochistan the toll of Saturday's blast was particularly high for the southwestern province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
AFP
South Sudan floods affect 1.4 million, displace 379,000: UN
Devastating flooding in South Sudan is affecting around 1.4 million people, with more than 379,000 displaced, according to a United Nations update that warned about an upsurge in malaria.The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 1.4 million people were affected by floods in 43 counties and the disputed Abyei region, which is claimed by both South Sudan and Sudan.
Reuters
Explainer-COP29: What is a carbon credit? What is Article 6?
Countries at the U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan will attempt to agree rules for a global system for trading carbon offset credits. WHAT ARE CARBON OFFSETS? Some governments and companies may struggle to reduce their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to meet their climate targets.
CNN
DOJ announces charges in Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump
The Justice Department on Friday announced federal charges in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump before the presidential election.
CNN
Trump’s new chief of staff is an unassuming figure in his brash inner circle. She’s also one of its most effective operators.
Dozens of people beamed alongside Donald Trump early Wednesday morning as he was elected America’s next president – including three generations of family, longtime friends, key advisers, his running mate, close political allies and Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White – but the architect of his remarkable political comeback was nearly invisible amid the celebratory throng.
Associated Press
Azerbaijan is the host of the UN's climate conference, shining a spotlight on the petrostate
The spotlight is on Azerbaijan as the small petrostate in the South Caucasus hosts the U.N.’s biggest climate conference. Diplomats from across the world will descend on the capital Baku for the annual climate summit, known as COP29, to discuss how to avoid increasing threats from climate change in a place that was one of the birthplaces of the oil industry. It was in Baku where the world’s first oil fields were developed  in 1846 and where Azerbaijan led the world in oil production in 1899.
CNN
Authorities work to find the source of racist texts sent to Black people nationwide after the election. Here’s what we know
Federal and state authorities are working to find the origins of racist text messages sent to Black people across the country threatening them with slavery and telling them they were “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”
Reuters
Jordan's tourism industry struggling as Gaza war deters visitors
Enas Al Hinti has cut staff pay in half and asked workers to take unpaid leave in an effort to keep her hotel in ancient Petra open as Western holidaymakers fearful of conflict shun destinations in the Middle East. A crisis across the region's tourism industry since the start of the Israel-Hamas war 13 months ago is being felt acutely in Jordan, whose border with Israel along the Red Sea and Dead Sea is studded with beach resorts. Sites such as Petra, Wadi Rum and crusader castles have been drawing visitors for decades - more than one million a year before the war, mainly Americans and Europeans.
Reuters
Greece's mussel harvest wiped out by warming seas
When Anastasios Zakalkas pulled up the ropes of his mussel farm in the Aegean Sea last month, the devastation was clear: the lines were not heaving with molluscs as they should be at harvest time but were instead filled with cracked, empty shells. It is the second time in three years that record sea temperatures have hit the mussel harvest in northern Greece, where farmers said they saw a 90% drop in the 2024 catch. Like other Mediterranean countries, Greece is particularly susceptible to climate change, which this year led to months of above-average temperatures, punishing drought and wildfires.
NBC News
Brush fire breaks out in Brooklyn's Prospect Park as Northeast drought continues
A brush fire broke out Friday night in Prospect Park, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, amid a drought that has been plaguing the northeastern U.S. for weeks.
CNN
Seaman rescued after more than 20 hours at sea off Australia’s east coast
A seaman who fell off a cargo ship survived almost 20 hours at sea before being rescued off Australia’s southeastern coast on Friday, according to emergency services.
CNN
Scans peer beneath the wrappings of ancient Egyptian mummies to reveal who they were
Scans of mummies at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History uncovered new details about how they were prepared for the afterlife and helped solve a baffling mystery.
NBC News
Menendez supporters say brothers should go free — but prosecutors who tried them believe they got what they deserved
Current and former prosecutors who tried the brothers in the 1990s told NBC News they believe Erik and Lyle Menendez are cold-blooded killers who should be in prison.
AFP
No culprit found five years on from Notre Dame fire
Five years of investigation and expert reports have failed to identify the precise cause of the 2019 fire that ravaged Paris' landmark Notre Dame cathedral, even as the probe draws to a close just as the cathedral prepares to reopen early next month.The more than 850-year-old cathedral of Notre Dame, whose silhouette is known the world over, was undergoing restoration work when fire broke out on April 15, 2019.
AFP
Reeking mud sparks health fears in Spain flood epicentre
The sea of mud and stagnant water submerging Spanish towns more than 10 days after the country's worst floods in decades has sparked a sickening stench and health fears.Stagnant water can trigger gastrointestinal disorders or pneumonia, Health Minister Monica Garcia told public radio RNE, but she ruled out the possibility of an "outbreak".
CNN
At least 24 killed in Pakistan train station suicide blast, Balochistan militants claim responsibility
A suicide bombing at a train station in southwestern Pakistan on Friday killed at least 24 people, according to a senior local government official.
Reuters
Explainer-Who are the key voices at the COP29 climate summit in Baku?
Nearly 200 countries will gather next week for the U.N. climate summit, COP29. Here are some of the major players and negotiating blocs involved in the COP29 summit starting Nov. 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan. China produces the most energy from climate-warming fossil fuels and also from renewable energy sources.
CNN
Ditch the cynicism. People are more generous, open-minded and compassionate than you think
Americans are experiencing a “trust recession,” social scientist Jamil Zaki says in his new book. But research reveals people are often better than we expect, he says.
Associated Press
Why AP called the Nevada Senate race for Jacky Rosen
Democratic incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen won reelection early Saturday morning after The Associated Press declared she had beat Republican Sam Brown in a race that turned on Rosen's strong performance in the state's two largest counties — Clark and Washoe. With nearly all of the vote counted, the AP called the race for Rosen. At the time the AP called the race at 12:15 a.m. ET on Saturday, there were not enough votes left to count, according to AP's estimates, in the state's rural areas to make up the gap created by Rosen's performance in the counties that are home to Las Vegas and Reno.
CNN
Jury deliberations to resume Saturday in Delphi double murder trial
Jury deliberations continue Friday in the highly publicized double murder trial of Richard Allen – who is accused of killing two teenage girls and leaving their bodies near a hiking path in the small town of Delphi, Indiana, more than seven years ago.

Latest Stories