Washington, D.C. – Today, a front organization for Senate Majority PAC, run by Chuck Schumer, Raphael Warnock’s biggest ally, is out with a misleading ad about Herschel Walker’s mental health.
It features Herschel and his ex-wife, and still close friend, Cindy, discussing some of the darkest moments of Herschel’s life for a TV interview indented to help others struggling with mental health issues seek help and end the stigma around mental health.
You can read the full ABC News story on Herschel and Cindy’s sit-down interview, rather than watching the out-of-context clips pushed by Warnock and his liberal allies, here.
Or you can watch the full in-context interview that Herschel gave with CBN as he re-told his story of redemption. Or, read his recent op-ed about a previous ad with the same tactic.
What’s worse, however, is the people that this attack will hurt. Digging up deeply out-of-context clips in an effort to chastise someone for telling their mental health story, is the exact stigmatization of mental health that will get people hurt. When people don’t seek the help they need, bad things happen.
But don’t take our word for it. Take it from Bill Kristol, the slime merchant behind a previous ad attacking Herschel for being open about his struggles.
“In a 2013 interview after a mass shooting at Washington’s Navy Yard, Mr. Kristol acknowledged that it’s dangerous to stigmatize people for mental illness: ‘Everyone is now saying because this guy was clearly disturbed that we have to report everyone who ever goes into a mental-health hospital or seeks mental-health treatment,’ he said. ‘I’m not so sure that’s a great idea. You would discourage people. People have episodes, or they get depressed, they get treatment. I don’t know, 20 years from now, do you want that to be in a database? I don’t have a view on this. I’m just saying these things, as a matter of actual public policy as opposed to reacting to a terrible tragedy, are much more complicated.’”
Statement from NRSC Spokesman T.W. Arrighi: “Only true scumbags would use someone’s mental health struggles against them to score political points, especially knowing full well that it will discourage people from seeking help, and likely end up getting someone hurt, or worse. Raphael Warnock should immediately denounce these dangerous and unfair attacks on Herschel Walker. If not, he is willingly complicit and owns whatever damage they cause.”
###
