Demings trolls Walker with police badge ahead of debate: ‘This one’s real’

Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) took a shot at Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker ahead of her Tuesday debate against incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

In a tweet on Tuesday, Demings, a former police chief for the Orlando Police Department, shared a photo of herself holding her police badge.

“This one’s real,” she wrote.

The tweet was an obvious reference to a viral moment from Walker’s Friday night debate against incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).

During that debate, Warnock hit Walker, a former NFL player, over past claims that he had worked for law enforcement. The Republican responded by flashing a badge onstage, prompting a scolding from the debate’s moderators, who warned him he was breaking the rules by using a prop.

Walker told NBC News in an interview days later that the badge he used at the debate was real and had been given to him by a police officer in Johnson County, Ga. He said he had received other police badges from other counties in the state as well.

“This is from my hometown. This is from Johnson County, from the sheriff from Johnson County, which is a legit badge,” Walker told NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker. “If anything happened in this county, I have the right to work with the police in getting things done.”

“People don’t know that I’ve been working with law enforcement for years,” Walker added. “I do training programs. … I do health and wellness programs. I visit prisons.”

The Demings-Rubio Senate race and the one in Georgia between Warnock and Walker are among the most closely watched contests this midterm cycle.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Tuesday shifted Florida’s Senate Race to “likely Republican” as Rubio continues to lead his Democratic challenger in recent polls before next month’s election.