ATLANTA — U.S. Senate hopeful Herschel Walker’s campaign was in turmoil Monday after his adult son accused his father of threatening to kill his family members, an accusation that came after a news outlet reported the Republican paid his then-girlfriend in 2009 to have an abortion despite his opposition to the procedure.
Walker, a former football star, condemned the report by The Daily Beast as a “flat-out lie” and pledged to sue the publication. But his campaign was further rocked when Christian Walker sent a series of tweets attacking his father for “making a mockery” of the family.
“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 tweeted.
In another exchange, Christian Walker tweeted that “every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office because we all knew (some of) his past.”
“He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it,” he wrote.
The developments threaten to upend the race between Walker and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who is running for a full six-year term after winning a special election in a 2021 runoff.
His victory was part of a Democratic tandem of wins that flipped control of the Senate, and this year’s race could once again determine which party controls the chamber.
The flurry of tweets from Christian Walker came after the Daily Beast reported that the woman, who asked the outlet not to be identified because of privacy concerns, became pregnant with Walker’s child. The outlet reported that Walker, who wasn’t married at the time, urged her to get an abortion and reimbursed her for the procedure.
Walker’s campaign didn’t immediately comment on his son’s remarks, but blasted the Daily Beast’s report. Since entering the race, Walker has backed a “total ban” on abortion even in instances of rape or incest.
“I’m not taking this anymore,” Walker said in a tweet, adding that he’s “planning to sue the Daily Beast for this defamatory lie. It will be filed tomorrow morning.”
The Daily Beast reported that the woman provided a copy of a signed $700 personal check from Walker, a “get well” card sent to the woman by Walker and a $575 receipt from the abortion clinic. The outlet published a photo of the “get well” card, which it said included Walker’s signature.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has not verified the Daily Beast’s report. The Daily Beast said that it independently corroborated details of the woman’s claims with a close friend she told at the time and who also took care of her in the days after the procedure.
In a statement late Monday after Walker threatened a lawsuit, the Daily Beast said: “We stand by the story 100 percent.”
The debate over abortion is one of the sharpest divides in race between Walker and Warnock, a Democrat who is an outspoken supporter of abortion rights.
Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, routinely calls the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade a “tragedy” and notes that Walker has backed a ban on the procedure even in the case of rape or incest.
The Daily Beast’s report published as Warnock was speaking to a joint meeting of the Jewish Democratic Council of America and the Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon, where he drew an ovation stressing his support for abortion rights.
Asked about the report following the campaign event, Warnock told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was focused on his policy stance.
“I’ll let the pundits decide how they think it will impact the race,” Warnock said of the report. “But I have been consistent in my view that a patient’s room is too narrow and cramped for space for a woman and the government. My view on that has not changed.”
Walker opposes abortion including in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake. His campaign said he supports a proposal by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham that would ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks.
The Daily Beast earlier reported that Walker wasn’t forthright about the number of children he fathered, leading to days of revelations about previously unacknowledged children that undercut his criticism of absentee dads. The AJC corroborated the report, though Walker’s top aide at the time called it “pure gossip.”
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