Report: Senate candidate Walker paid for his girlfriend’s abortion
DUNWOODY, Ga. — Herschel Walker, who has vehemently opposed abortion rights as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia, paid for an abortion for his girlfriend in 2009, according to a new report. The candidate called the accusation a “flat-out lie” and said he would sue.
The Daily Beast spoke to the former girlfriend, who asked that her name not be used out of concerns for her privacy. In the report published late Monday, the news outlet said it reviewed a receipt showing her $575 payment for the procedure, along with a get-well card from Walker and her bank deposit records showing the image of a $700 personal check from Walker dated five days after the abortion receipt.
The woman said Walker encouraged her to end the pregnancy, saying that the time wasn’t right for a baby, The Daily Beast reported. As a candidate, Walker has characterized abortion as “a woman killing her baby” and has played up his opposition to the procedure in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year stripping a woman’s constitutional right to access abortion services.
In a statement, Walker said he would file a lawsuit against The Daily Beast on Tuesday morning.
“This is a flat-out lie — and I deny this in the strongest terms possible,” he wrote.
Matt Fuller, the politics editor for The Daily Beast, tweeted in response: “I can tell you we stand behind every word and feel very solid about the story.”
Later Monday night, Walker appeared on Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News, where Walker was asked if he recalled sending a $700 check to a girlfriend.
“Well, I sent money to a lot of people,” he said. “I give money to people all the time because I’m always helping people. I believe in being generous. God has blessed me. I want to bless others.”
Former President Donald Trump, who encouraged Walker to run for Senate, said Walker was being “slandered and maligned.”
“Herschel has properly denied the charges against him, and I have no doubt he is correct,” Trump said in a statement.
Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock are engaged in a tight contest that is key to the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. The chamber is now divided 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote to give Democrats control. Warnock won the seat in a special election runoff on Jan. 5, 2021, prevailing by 2 percentage points over then-sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican.
The allegation against Walker is the latest in a series of stories about the football legend’s past that has rocked the first-time candidate’s campaign in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country. Earlier this year, Walker acknowledged reports that he had three children he had not previously talked about publicly.