Walker cancels fundraiser over syringe swastika

Herschel Walker passed up a fundraising opportunity when he canceled an event in Texas after reports surfaced that the host, a conservative film producer, had used a rendering of a swastika as her Twitter profile picture.

The Republican’s U.S. Senate campaign team said in a statement that the event at the home of conservative film producer Bettina Sofia Viviano-Langlais had been “called off,” hours after it had initially made a case that the symbol wasn’t a swastika but “clearly an anti-mandatory vaccination graphic.”

The symbol, syringes arranged to form a swastika, is used by some opponents of COVID-19 vaccine requirements in Texas.

When the campaign canceled the fundraiser, it issued a statement disavowing Viviano-Langlais’ usage of the symbol and said Walker opposed antisemitism and bigotry “in all forms.”

“Despite the fact that the apparent intent behind the graphic was to condemn government vaccine mandates,” the campaign said, “the symbol used is very offensive and does not reflect the values of Herschel Walker or his campaign.”

Jewish groups have condemned the use of the syringe swastika in protests of vaccine requirements.

“A swastika is a swastika,” the Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon said.

Dov Wilker of the Atlanta chapter of the American Jewish Committee said Walker has more to do.

“Walker may have canceled his fundraiser after a sponsor associated with the event displayed the antisemitic symbol proudly,” Wilker said, “but he must condemn Holocaust and COVID health policies comparisons immediately.”

Viviano-Langlais later removed the symbol from her Twitter profile, saying she made the move “because of the left’s need to silence free speech” and that she didn’t intend it to be antisemitic.

She expanded on those points in an interview with the DailyMail.com.

“My biggest disappointment is that yet again another conservative has decided to succumb to the outrage mob, cancel culture, and cancel the event,” she said. “I specifically chose that symbol as an artistic protest against those that seem to think it’s okay to violate human rights.”