(WASHINGTON) — Herschel Walker, a Georgia football icon and U.S. Senate hopeful, has denied a report in the Daily Beast that an ex-girlfriend claimed he paid the cost of her abortion more than 10 years ago, a claim that would seem to contradict his anti-abortion posture on the campaign trail.
Walker, a Republican, immediately denied the claim and promised to file a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Beast, which published the story, on Tuesday morning. Walker later appeared on Fox News Channel’s Hannity, where he issued additional denials.
“I can tell you right now, I never asked anyone to get an abortion,” Walker told Sean Hannity. “I never paid for an abortion — it’s a lie.”
The Daily Beast reported Monday that an unidentified woman who claimed to be Walker’s ex-girlfriend said she sought a medical abortion after the couple conceived in 2009. The woman shared documentation with the news outlet: a receipt from an abortion clinic, a bank deposit receipt with an image of a $700 check that appeared to be signed by Walker sent within a week of the abortion and a “get well” card that appeared to be signed by Walker.
ABC News was not able to confirm the Daily Beast’s reporting.
Walker has carved out a staunch anti-abortion position as a candidate for U.S. Senate, aligning himself with a bill proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would institute a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks.
Without explicitly citing the Daily Beast’s reporting, Walker’s adult son, Christian Walker, an outspoken conservative social media personality and podcast host, lambasted his father on Twitter.
“Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past. Every single one,” Christian Walker wrote Monday. “He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it. I’m done.”
The younger Walker also leveled additional allegations against his father, who has attracted scrutiny in recent months for allegations of violence in his past. In a book years ago, Herschel Walker has described himself as having been diagnosed with a dissociative identity disorder, or D.I.D. He has said that treatment healed him.
“I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us,” Christian Walker wrote Monday on Twitter. “You’re not a ‘family man.'”
Walker is currently locked in a heated and high-stakes battle for Georgia’s Senate seat with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, the outcome of which could tilt the balance of power in Washington come November.
When asked about the Daily Beast report late Monday, Warnock deferred to the “pundits [who will] decide how they think it will impact the race.”
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