For more stories on Georgia politics, visit our Georgia political news section.
Herschel Walker’s campaign is on life support and in full-fledged damage control mode after a report that Walker helped to pay for an abortion of a child that he allegedly conceived with an ex-girlfriend. Throughout his campaign, Walker has touted his pro-life, anti-abortion stance. According to the original story in The Daily Beast, the ex-girlfriend, who has remained anonymous, told political reporter Roger Sollenberger that Walker urged her to get an abortion and reimbursed her when they were dating, back in 2009. It’s too early to gauge political fallout via polls from the abortion funding allegation, but the bad news for Walker didn’t end with the Daily Beast’s bombshell.
Less than 24 hours after the Daily Beast’s exclusive story broke, one of Walker’s sons publicly condemned him, and Politico revealed that Walker’s campaign team already knew about his alleged abortion funding. According to Politico, members of the campaign team attempted to persuade Walker to drop out of the race. An excerpt from the story described the reaction of some of the team members:
“It was brought to the attention of those working on Walker’s behalf, in part as a means of discouraging him from running. His team downplayed the potential disruption it would cause. But, according to one of those people, they did not outright deny it..said one top Georgia GOP operative, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.The reaction was not, ‘They’re not going to say that because it never happened.’ It was like everything else, ‘Eh, people aren’t going to find out.’”
Plenty of people found out today. Walker’s son, Christian, not only criticized his father’s alleged double-standard on abortion, but also claimed that Herschel threatened his life, as well as his mother’s.
“I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us…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.”
Christian Walker
Walker’s latest campaign debacle came as no surprise to Georgia political talkshow host Ben Burnett. Earlier this year, Burnett criticized the naivety of star struck voters who chose Walker, and his known baggage, in the GOP Primary mostly due to the celebrity status, which he originally gained achieved during his college athletic career as Heisman Trophy-winning running back at the University of Georgia. Burnett also cited multiple red flags in Walker’s background and predicted that the gamble on Walker would come back to haunt Georgia Republicans and hinder their efforts to win an otherwise easily-winnable US Senate seat currently occupied by incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock.
You can listen to Burnett’s eerily prophetic commentary below.