WADLEY, Ga. (AP) — Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker remained defiant Thursday after successive studies alleging that he inspired and paid for a girl’s 2009 abortion and later fathered a baby together with her.
Digging in on his denials of The Daily Beast’s reporting, Walker, a soccer icon turned movie star politician and staunch abortion foe, blamed the tales on Democrats and their “desperation” — a defensive tactic that Walker’s pal and ally, former President Donald Trump, used to climate myriad controversies on his means to the White House.
“I know why you’re here. I do,” he instructed reporters after his first public marketing campaign speech since The Daily Beast’s preliminary 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 within the hours after a Monday report to sue the news outlet, however has not adopted up with affirmation he has accomplished so. And he has but to make clear why he initially mentioned he had no thought what lady could possibly be making such an abortion declare, solely to have The Daily Beast comply with up Wednesday with the girl saying she had had a protracted relationship with Walker that included a baby he is aware of.
The allegations have rocked one of many nation’s most essential Senate matchups. Walker is in a good contest with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, with the result probably figuring out which get together controls the Senate for the ultimate two years of President Joe Biden’s time period.
Walker’s tempest hasn’t shaken assist amongst amongst Republicans in Washington, the place Senate management supersedes practically all considerations in a aggressive race. But the newest turns have rattled some get together trustworthy in Georgia, particularly after the Daily Beast’s follow-up report undercut Walker’s blanket denials.
“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 well-liked radio host in north Georgia and one-time congressional candidate, mentioned in an interview.
Indeed, Walker presents the newest balancing take a look at for spiritual and cultural conservatives who should weigh their desire for Republican rule towards a person candidate accused of not reflecting their values. Trump, who urged Walker to run for the Senate, gained the GOP presidential nomination and the White House in 2016 regardless of being twice-divorced, as soon as a supporter of abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and being captured on tape bragging about “grabbing” ladies by their genitalia.
Now, in Walker, conservatives face one other political novice who characterizes abortion as a girl “killing her baby,” solely to have allegations that he paid to finish a being pregnant he helped conceive. Just months in the past, additionally after a Daily Beast story, Walker acknowledged the existence of three kids he’d not mentioned publicly earlier than, one now not directly recognized because the little one of the girl who mentioned she had the abortion. Those private particulars come on high of tales detailing Walker’s exaggerations of enterprise achievements and philanthropic efforts.
Zoller, the Georgia radio host, mentioned that no “committed Republican” would vote for Warnock however that many would think about backing the Libertarian nominee or skipping the Senate race altogether. “I think most won’t know until they’re standing there in the booth,” she mentioned. “That’s how jarring these revelations are.”
The state tilted narrowly to Biden in 2020 and despatched Warnock to the Senate two months later.
Even amongst nationwide GOP luminaries, a number of the defenses have been lower than forceful.
“He had a lot of concussions coming out of football; he suffered PTSD,” mentioned Newt Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman and Republican House speaker, shortly after praising Walker as “a remarkable person.”
The Daily Beast nonetheless has not recognized the girl by identify, saying it needs to shield her privateness.
The preliminary report included paper proof the girl offered. Those data embrace what seems to be a $575 receipt for an abortion process, a get-well card signed by Walker and a financial institution deposit receipt exhibiting a $700 private examine from Walker, dated 5 days after the abortion receipt.
In that story, The Daily Beast described the girl solely as somebody who was courting Walker in 2009, on the time of the abortion. Walker responded with conservative media interviews by which he mentioned he had no thought who might make the allegation after which dismissed the private examine by claiming, “I send money to a lot of people.”
The Daily Beast responded with the second report by which the girl mentioned she was so well-known to Walker that, in accordance to her, they conceived one other little one years after the abortion. She determined to proceed with the later being pregnant, although she famous that Walker, as he had through the earlier being pregnant, expressed that it wasn’t a handy time for him, the outlet reported.
Prior to his Senate bid, Walker had publicly acknowledged solely his son, Christian Walker, whose mom was Walker’s first spouse. He acknowledged three further kids on account of reporting through the marketing campaign. But these kids haven’t been featured in his marketing campaign.
Christian Walker, a high-profile social media commentator who identifies as a conservative, has since Monday’s Daily Beast report issued a number of statements accusing his father of mendacity about his previous and being an absent, violent father and husband.
Asked about Christian Walker on Thursday, he mentioned merely that, “I love my son so much. He’s a great little man. I love him to death. I will always love him no matter what.”
Warnock, for his half, turns questions on Walker and abortion to the Republicans’ opposition to the process, relatively than to Walker himself. He took that tack once more Thursday as he campaigned in his hometown of Savannah, along with his kids, ages 6 and three, in tow.
The Daily Beast mentioned the Walker marketing campaign declined to touch upon Wednesday’s story, and the candidate provided no illuminating particulars throughout his five-minute trade with reporters in south Georgia.
Walker started airing an advert this week, titled “Grace,” by which he mentions his struggles with psychological sickness that he wrote about in a 2008 memoir that particulars violent threats he made towards his first spouse. But the advert doesn’t allude to the abortion allegations. That’s not sufficient for somebody with Walker’s identified and alleged historical past, radio host Zoller mentioned.
During his Senate main, Walker brazenly backed a nationwide ban on abortions with no caveats — significantly notable at a time when the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court precedent had been overturned and Democrats in Congress had been discussing codifying abortion rights into federal regulation. When requested whether or not he’d permit exceptions in circumstances involving rape, incest or a girl’s well being being in danger, Walker has mentioned there are “no excuses” for the process.
As nominee, nevertheless, Walker has typically sidestepped questions on that place, a tacit nod to the truth that most voters, together with many Republicans, need at the very least some authorized entry to abortion.
His inventory reply as an alternative: “I’m for life.”
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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press author Russ Bynum contributed from Savannah, Georgia.
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