“I don’t want to be a vampire, I want to be a werewolf”: Herschel Walker campaign gets more bizarre

"I've got to say, it's some rambling incoherence taken to Olympian levels," said MSNBC host Joe Scarborough

By Igor Derysh

Managing Editor

Published November 17, 2022 9:22AM (EST)

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks to supporters at a campaign rally on November 16, 2022 in McDonough, Georgia.  (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks to supporters at a campaign rally on November 16, 2022 in McDonough, Georgia. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker ranted about werewolves and vampires during a campaign stop on Wednesday amid a series of bizarre statements that left observers scratching their heads.

Walker, the Trump-backed former NFL running back facing Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in a run-off election on December 6, went off on a lengthy tangent about the film "Freak Night" during a speech in McDonough, Ga.

"I was here watching a stupid movie late at night hoping it's gonna get better, it don't get better but you keep watching anyway. Cause the other night, the other night I was watching this movie — I was watching this movie called "Fright Night," "Freak Night" or some type of night but it was about vampires," he said. "I don't know if you know but vampires are some cool people, are they not?"

"But let me tell you something that I found out: a werewolf can kill a vampire, did you know that?" he added. "I never knew that. So I don't want to be a vampire anymore, I wanna be a werewolf."

Walker went on to describe the plot, explaining the kids in the film got an actor to try to kill the vampire in their attic, before making a comparison to Warnock.

"Now this is an actor, he's all fake, he's blessing the house with his holy water. They walked upstairs, and this vampire, looking real good in this black suit — whoa now that sounds like Senator Warnock now, doesn't it?" Walker said. "Looking real good in this black suit, floated from the ceiling, he floated from the ceiling looking good, and cool. And I'm thinking, whoa, you better get out of your house. If somebody floats from the ceiling get out of the house, that's not your house."

Walker then attempted to turn the story into a parable.

"As he floated by the ceiling, the kid jumped behind our hero, and as he jumped behind the hero, the guy jumped in front of him with the holy water, thrown it on him, on the vampire's forehead. He covers his eyes," he said. "Then he took his hand away. He started laughing. He said, 'that don't work.' He took the cross, put it on his forehead, on the vampire's forehead, and the vampire didn't even do anything. Now he said, 'that don't work,' and that's the way it is in our life. It doesn't work, unless you got faith… we gotta have faith."

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, played the clip to demonstrate that Walker is "ill-equipped on so many levels."

"I've got to say, it's some rambling incoherence taken to Olympian levels," he said.

"Seriously…seriously, what the hell was that?!" tweeted Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee.

"There are no werewolves in Tom Holland's 1985 film Fright Night," wrote journalist Adam Ward.


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Walker has repeatedly made eyebrow-raising statements on the campaign trail, suggesting that the solution to high insulin costs is to "eat right," suggesting Medicaid "has not been good" when asked about expanding it, and criticizing climate change solutions by arguing that the United States' "good air" will "float over to China's bad air."

Walker on Monday attacked the growing green energy industry, arguing that Georgia is not "ready for the green agenda."

"What we need to do is keep having those gas-guzzling cars, 'cause we got the good emissions under those cars," Walker said.

During a campaign stop in Jefferson on Tuesday, Walker appeared surprised to learn that there is early voting in his election.

"I don't think they have early voting, do they?" he said before being corrected by a staffer.

While many Republican candidates have focused on attacking Democrats over crime, Walker has admitted that he has "no idea" what his solution is. Local news outlet WMAZ this week tried to get more details on Walker's crime plan but came up empty.

"We asked his campaign again Tuesday," the outlet reported. "They did not respond."


By Igor Derysh

Igor Derysh is Salon's managing editor. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald and Baltimore Sun.

MORE FROM Igor Derysh


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Aggregate Elections Herschel Walker Politics Raphael Warnock