Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks at a campaign event on September 9, 2022 in Gwinnett, Georgia.
Megan Varner/Getty Images
Herschel Walker paid for a woman’s abortion despite his pro-life stance, the Daily Beast reported.
Walker denied the story, but now his TikTok influencer son Christian is calling his father a liar.
In tweets and videos, Christian said he’s been “silent” despite allegations Walker abused his mother.
Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker is facing yet another scandal in the high-stakes US Senate election in Georgia, where the one-time professional football player is seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.
The Daily Beast reported Monday night that Walker reimbursed a woman for an abortion in 2009, despite the candidate’s strong public stance against abortion rights.
Walker denied the story and said he would sue the outlet for defamation on Tuesday morning. Walker’s son Christian, a conservative social media influencer, lashed out at his father in a series of tweets and videos, calling him a liar.
Here’s what we know so far:
Walker allegedly paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009
The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger reported on Tuesday evening that Walker and a woman he was dating in 2009 conceived a child. Walker, saying it was “not the right time” for him to raise a child, encouraged the woman to get an abortion, and paid her $700 to reimburse her for the procedure in September of that year.
The woman corroborated the story with a receipt, a signed check from Walker, and even a “get well” card — a photo of which is included in the Beast’s report.
“I just can’t with the hypocrisy anymore,” she told the outlet, explaining why she decided to come forward. “We all deserve better.”
Walker is staunchly and unapologetically anti-abortion rights
Like most Republican candidates and elected officials, Walker is broadly opposed to abortion.
However, he takes it further than most — likening commonly-accepted exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape and incest, as well as pregnancies that threaten the life of the mother, to “excuses.”
—American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) June 21, 2022
Additionally, while most Republicans sought to distance themselves from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina’s 15-week national abortion ban, Walker was the rare Senate candidate who enthusiastically backed it.
“Raphael Warnock wants to protect the killing of babies right up to the moment of birth. We need to do better,” Walker said in a statement to POLITICO in September. “I am a proud pro-life Christian, and I will always stand up for our unborn children. I believe the issue should be decided at the state level, but I WOULD support this policy.”
Walker is denying the story and threatening to sue
In a statement, Walker called the report a “flat-out lie,” accused the reporter of being a “democrat activist,” and said he would sue The Daily Beast for defamation.
—Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) October 3, 2022
Ahead of publication, Walker campaign lawyer Robert Ingram told the Daily Beast that the story was “false” and accused the outlet of only publishing “stories to target Black conservatives.” Curiously, he asked for the identity of the woman, which the outlet declined to provide.
Walker also suggested to Axios reporter Emma Hurt that he was being racially targeted.
“I think right now, I ask this question: Would they be doing that if I was white?” he told Hurt.
—Emma Hurt (@Emma_Hurt) October 3, 2022
Walker then went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Monday night and continued to deny the story.
“I send money to a lot of people,” he said of the $700 check.
So far, national Republicans are standing by Walker
Chris Hartline, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, likened the report to “innuendo and lies” without addressing the substance of the claims in a statement to Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein.
—Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) October 4, 2022
“We are full speed ahead in Georgia,” said Steven Law, head of a GOP super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a statement to New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher.
—Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 4, 2022
And Warnock is staying out of it
“I’ll let the pundits decide how they think it will impact the race,” Warnock told Bluestein.
—Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) October 4, 2022
But this is just the latest scandal for Walker
Since launching his Senate campaign, Walker has been dogged by several scandals, including allegations that he abused his ex-wife and the fact that he’s fathered several previously undisclosed children.
“He held the gun to my temple and said he was gonna blow my brains out,” his ex-wife, Christian’s mother, said.
Now, Christian Walker is speaking out against his father
Walker’s son, a social media influencer known for his bombastic TikToks and Instagram Reels highlighting his conservative views, took to Twitter after the Daily Beast published the story.
“Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past,” he tweeted on Monday night.
“You’re not a “family man” when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence,” he wrote in another tweet. “You’ve lived a life of DESTROYING other peoples lives.”
On Tuesday morning, Christian posted a pair of videos on Twitter in which he seemingly confirmed some of the details of the Beast’s reporting while calling his father a liar.
“It’s literally his handwriting in the card,” he said of the “get well” card sent to the woman. “He gets on Twitter, he lies about it. Okay, I’m done. Done! Everything has been a lie.”
—Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022
“Don’t lie about your life at the expense of me, my mom, and all of the people that you’ve affected throughout your life,” he said in the second video. “You don’t get to pretend to be some moral family guy.”
—Christian Walker (@ChristianWalk1r) October 4, 2022
Here’s Walker’s response to his son
—Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) October 4, 2022
And his son’s now-deleted response
—Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) October 4, 2022