The plot thickens. Earlier this week The Daily Beast reported that GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who has campaigned for a total abortion ban, was revealed to have paid for a woman to have an abortion. Now, The Daily Beast is back with another disclosure: Herschel Walker had a baby with the same woman.
“After a woman revealed that Republican senatorial candidate Hershel Walker had urged her to have an abortion, Walker adamantly denied the story and claimed he had no idea who this woman could be,” The Daily Beast reported. “But there’s a good reason the woman finds that defense highly doubtful: She’s the mother of one of his children.”
Apparently, when the woman came forward to tell The Daily Beast her story, she did so with the guarantee of anonymity – she didn’t want to compromise her safety or privacy – and with the promise that portions of her story (i.e. she had a kid with Walker, too) would not be disclosed. But then Walker denied the abortion allegation, which was backed up with an abortion clinic receipt, a “get well” card, and a check—both of which Walker had signed.
After the abortion allegation dropped, Herschel Walker went on Fox News, where he was asked if he knew who the woman was.
“Not at all,” Walker said. “And that’s what I hope everyone can see. It’s sort of like everyone is anonymous, or everyone is leaking, and they want you to confess to something you have no clue about.”
Instead, Walker blamed the attack on “desperate” Democrats. “They see me as a big threat, and I know that and I knew it when I got into this race. But they don’t realize that I think they came for the wrong one. They energized me. They energized me, because I know how they really want to try and keep this seat.”
When asked about Walker’s response, the woman told The Daily Beast, “sure, I was stunned, but I guess it also doesn’t shock me, that maybe there are just so many of us that he truly doesn’t remember. But then again, if he really forgot about it, that says something, too.”
“The woman, a registered Democrat whose years-long relationship with Walker continued after the abortion, told The Daily Beast that her chief concern with revealing her name was because she is the mother of one of Walker’s own children and she wanted to protect her family’s privacy as best she could while also coming forward with the truth,” The Daily Beast reported, adding that “Walker has publicly acknowledged the child as his own, and the woman proved she is the child’s mother and provided credible evidence of a long-term relationship with Walker.”
The woman added: “I’ve been very civil thus far. I keep my mouth shut. I don’t cause any trouble. I stay in the background. But I’m also not gonna get run over time and time again. That’s crazy.”
The woman continued, further attacking the hypocrisy of Herschel Walker’s contemporary pro-life stance and saying that Walker used Christianity “when it works for him.”
“He didn’t express any regret. He said, ‘relax and recover,’” she said. “I don’t think there’s anywhere in the Bible where it says ‘Have four kids with four different women while you’re with another woman.’ Or where it praises not being a present parent. Or that an abortion is an OK thing to do when it’s not the right time for you, but a terrible thing for anyone else to do when you are running for Senate. He picks and chooses where it’s convenient for him to use that religious crutch.”
Amen.
“He didn’t accept responsibility for the kid we did have together, and now he isn’t accepting responsibility for the one that we didn’t have. That says so much about how he views the role of women in childbirth, versus his own,” she said. “And now he wants to take that choice away from other women and couples entirely.”
Continuing, the woman added “this was a decision I had to make – twice – about my future and a potential child’s future, and I was able to make it, both times. And Herschel was also able to have a say. The fact he now thinks it’s OK to just take that away, I just can’t understand.”
The allegations have helped Walker’s opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock, open up a 12-point lead in the polls.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Defense Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, he joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. He lives in Oregon and listens to Dokken. Follow him on Twitter @harrison_kass.