A guest on MSNBC said Saturday that Republicans backed former running back Herschel Walker for a United States Senate seat because he was a black candidate who “lacks independent thoughts.”

“Walker’s gonna do what he’s told and that’s what Republicans like,” Elie Mystal, the justice correspondent for The Nation, told MSNBC host Tiffany Cross. “That’s what Republicans want from their negroes: to do what they’re told. And walker presents exactly as a person who lacks independent thoughts, lacks an independent agenda, lacks an independent ability to grasp policies and he’s just going to go in there and vote like Mitch McConnell tells him to vote.”

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Walker, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, currently trails Warnock by 4.4% in the RealClearPolitics average. He won the Republican primary in May with 68.2% of the vote after receiving endorsements from both former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Mystal also directed his comments at Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who defeated then-Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in 2020.

“I remember this has worked for the GOP in the south already,” Mystal said. “Tommy Tuberville, who right now is probably the dumbest person in the United States Senate, all he does is what Mitch McConnell tells him to do.”

“It just basically means that Mitch McConnell gets three votes every time he shows up to work, as opposed to just his own,” Mystal said.

Mystal and Walker did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.