ICYMI: GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker has been overstating his academic achievements for years [CNN]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

CNN: GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker has been overstating his academic achievements for years
By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck
April 1, 2022

Key Points:

• For years, Herschel Walker has told the same inspiring story: that he graduated in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia.

• The only problem: it’s not true.

• A CNN KFile review found that Walker himself has been repeating the claim for years. Walker’s comments in 2017, and others made over the years, show the former football star repeatedly misrepresented his academic credentials.

• Walker did not graduate from Georgia, where he was a star running back after entering as a prized high school recruit…. He left to play professional football before graduating and, though having repeatedly said he was returning to obtain his degree, he never received a diploma.

• The claim was removed from his website between December and January, according to screenshots from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

• That was not the only claim about Walker’s education that was adjusted on his website at the time. After a review of the revised site, CNN’s KFile found another little-noticed claim was removed that said Walker graduated valedictorian of his high school. The website now says that Walker graduated “top of his class.” The claim still remains on the Heisman Winners page for Walker.

• CNN’s Kfile found no evidence he was the class valedictorian.

• CNN’s KFile reviewed Walker’s high school yearbooks and coverage of him in local newspapers at the time. According to the local newspaper The Wrightsville Headlight, at Walker’s 1980 graduation he was not given the award for the student with the highest GPA in any academic subject… The article does not mention the school naming a valedictorian or a salutatorian.

• A 15-year review of local press coverage did not find the school naming a valedictorian until 1994 — when the paper acknowledged the school was naming a valedictorian and salutatorian for the first time in “many years.”

• Walker’s campaign did not provide evidence that Walker graduated as his high school’s valedictorian… The campaign also did not provide an explanation for why it removed the claim that Walker was valedictorian from his website. When repeatedly asked if the campaign stood by the since-removed claim from his website, the Walker’s campaign manager Scott Paradise sent the same statement three times in a row which did not address KFile’s questions.

• It’s unclear when Walker began claiming he graduated from Georgia, and press accounts began listing him as returning to get his degree as early as 1983.

• Over the years, Walker repeatedly told interviewers he had gone back to Georgia during the off-season to take classes.

###