Walker sticks to denials of abortion, fathering accusations

WADLEY, GA. — Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker remained defiant Thursday after successive reports alleging that he encouraged and paid for the 2009 abortion of a woman and later fathered a child with her.

Digging in on his denials of reporting by The Daily Beast, Walker, a football icon turned celebrity politician and staunch abortion foe, blamed the stories on Democrats and their “desperation” — a defensive tactic that Walker’s friend and ally, former President Donald

Trump, used to weather myriad controversies on his way to the White House.

“I know why you’re here. I do,” he told reporters after his first public campaign speech since The Daily Beast’s initial report Monday. “You’re here because the Democrats are desperate to hold on to this seat here, and they’re desperate to make this race about my family.”

He went on to repeat: “This abortion thing is false. It’s a lie.”

Walker promised in the hours after the initial report to sue the news outlet, but has not followed up with an announcement that he has done so.

The allegations, along with statements from Walker’s adult son blasting his father as a liar, have rocked one of the nation’s most important Senate contests. Walker is locked in a tight race against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, with the outcome potentially determining which party controls the Senate for the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term.

Walker’s stop Thursday, his first public appearance of the week after a series of conservative media interviews and closed events, marked his latest attempt to navigate his rocky past and reconcile the allegations with his support for an absolute national ban on abortions. He has previously confronted stories revealing additional children he had not publicly acknowledged and detailing his exaggerations of business achievements.

None of that has shaken public support for Walker among Republicans in Washington, but the abortion allegations have rattled some party faithful in Georgia.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting calls from Republicans who are very concerned and struggling with what they’re going to do in the voting booth,” Martha Zoller, a popular radio host in north Georgia and one-time congressional candidate, said in an interview.