In this screenshot from the RNC’s livestream of the 2020 Republican National Convention, former NFL athlete Herschel Walker addresses the virtual convention on August 24, 2020. | Source: Handout / Getty
The full list of people tapped to deliver speeches at the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) has been released, and there are a number of familiar faces noticeably missing.
Looking a bit more granularly, out of more than 80 people, there are just seven Black speakers set to talk about why they think Donald Trump is the right person to be president of the United States. That comparably small fraction of melanin does not include celebrity personality Amber Rose, a recent MAGA convert who last year went out of her way to make sure everybody knows that she certainly does not identify as a Black woman.
MORE: Things Black Voters Should Know Before The Republican National Convention
But if Amber Rose made the cut, surely so did Herschel Walker, right?
Is Herschel Walker speaking at the 2024 RNC?
Wait — is Herschel Walker speaking at the 2024 RNC?
After all, he spoke — er, well, mumbled really — at the RNC in 2020, the pandemic year that forced Republicans to gather virtually instead of in person, unlike this year’s return to normalcy with the convention being held in Milwaukee.
That was when Walker notably and vehemently defended Trump from persistent and accurate accusations of racism — particularly anti-Black racism, something that Trump actively participated in for decades beginning in the 1970s. Walker said it hurt his feelings that people could ever think his dear friend Donald Trump could have a proverbial racist bone in his body.
“I take that as a personal insult, that people would think I’ve had a 37-year friendship with a racist,” Walker said during his speech. “People don’t know what they’re talking about. Growing up in the deep South, I’ve seen racism up close. I know what it is. And it isn’t Donald Trump.”
In other words, Walker has shown blind loyalty to Trump, who reportedly rewards people for such behavior.
But that loyalty is apparently not being reciprocated four years later as Walker’s name is among those snubbed and not invited to impart their wisdom to an adoring audience of Republicans in Milwaukee.
So why isn’t Herschel Walker speaking at the Republican National Convention this year?
It’s impossible to say for sure why Herschel Walker wasn’t invited to speak at the 2024 RNC, but all signs point to the fact that he’s just not useful to Republicans anymore. And that is apparently putting it mildly.
Trump probably took Walker’s 2022 Senate race loss to Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock “as a personal insult” since he endorsed Walker. As the result of Trump’s likely bruised ego, Walker was seemingly excommunicated by the national Republican Party, especially after allegations last year that Walker broke campaign finance laws.
Months later, Walker reportedly refuses to return millions of dollars that the Georgia Republican Party helped him raise as a Senate candidate. That refusal has “irked” Republicans, who are “furious,” according to a Politico report about more than $4 million.
“Those resources were solicited and given to support his candidacy as a Georgia Republican, and unless he intends to use them again for his own candidacy, I sure hope the favor would be returned,” former Georgia state GOP chair John Watson said in May. “Georgia Republicans should be supported by those dollars in whatever legal fashion the campaign can.”
Two months later and it’s doubtful that sentiment has changed since there have been no reports that Walker returned the funds.
Taken in its totality, including the likelihood that vengeance played a role, it appears that Republicans want to have absolutely nothing to do with the candidate around whom they were gleefully rallying less than two years ago.
Or, maybe I’m completely wrong and Republicans instead invited him to work security at the RNC since Walker famously said during a debate against Warnock that he previously “worked in law enforcement,” pulling out a badge later determined to be a “prop” and suggesting he was an FBI “agent.”
Herschel Walker displays a fake badge during a debate against Sen. Raphael Warnock on Oct. 14, 2022. | Source: Screenshot
Or — perhaps more accurately — Walker allowed himself to be used by the Republican Party as a Black “prop” and when his usage was no longer needed, the GOP kicked him to the curb and demanded he pay them back.
We may never know the real reason why Herschel Walker was left off of the list of 2024 RNC speakers, but there is one thing we do know for sure: Walker was quickly replaceable and party leaders just tapped the next crop of Black Republicans to speak instead, like Florida Rep. Byron Donalds.
As the saying goes, one monkey don’t stop no show.
SEE ALSO:
Herschel Walker Taking College Courses After Lying He Graduated From University Of Georgia
Herschel Walker’s Son Calls It Karma That Warnock Won The Senate Runoff
