Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker is vowing to fight back against a “defamatory lie” published by the Daily Beast.
Walker, who is running on a pro-life platform, responded to an article on Monday that claimed he paid for his girlfriend to get an abortion in 2009.
“This is a flat-out lie – and I deny this in the strongest possible terms,” the Senate hopeful said in a statement.
He went on: “This is another repugnant hatchet job from a democrat activist disguised as a reporter who has obsessively attacked my family and tried to tear me down since this race started. He’s harassed friends of mine, asking if I fathered their children. He’s called my children ‘secret’ because I didn’t want to use them as campaign props in a political campaign. Now they’re using an anonymous source to further slander me.”
“I’m not taking this anymore. I [sic] planning to sue the Daily Beast for this defamatory lie. It will be filed tomorrow morning,” he concluded.
Read the statement below:
Regarding the latest Democrat attack: pic.twitter.com/OjrDcGak95
— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) October 3, 2022
According to the Daily Beast, “A woman who asked not to be identified out of privacy concerns told The Daily Beast that after she and Walker conceived a child while they were dating in 2009 he urged her to get an abortion. The woman said she had the procedure and that Walker reimbursed her for it.”
“She supported these claims with a $575 receipt from the abortion clinic, a ‘get well’ card from Walker, and a bank deposit receipt that included an image of a signed $700 personal check from Walker,” it added.
The outlet also said it “independently corroborated details of the woman’s claims with a close friend she told at the time and who, according to the woman and the friend, took care of her in the days after the procedure.”
The article includes a picture of a “get well” card purportedly signed by Walker.
“Pray you are feeling better,” a note in the card reads.
The article also noted it was signed with an “‘H’ in Walker’s distinctive autograph flourish.”
Hershel Walker's "Rest…Relax…Recover" get well card to his girlfriend after paying for her abortion, a medical procedure he now says that no other women should have access to. https://t.co/RvmL47gEnd pic.twitter.com/Qzhms7z2VO
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) October 3, 2022
While Walker denied the story, his son Christian Walker took to Twitter and blasted him.
“Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past. Every single one. 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,” Christian Walker wrote.
https://twitter.com/ChristianWalk1r/status/1577101530586484736
https://twitter.com/ChristianWalk1r/status/1577284445367042049
He added, “I don’t care about someone who has a bad past and takes accountability. But how DARE YOU LIE and act as though you’re some ‘moral, Christian, upright man.’ You’ve lived a life of DESTROYING other peoples lives. How dare you.”
UPDATE [10/04/22, 2:41 p.m. EST]:
Herschel Walker’s lawyer told CBS News field producer Elizabeth Campbell, “We are currently considering our options but no final decision has been made on the future handling of this matter.”