“I’m done! DONE! Everything has been a lie!”
The frustration was both palpable and relatable. Who among us hasn’t felt this way — maybe even said this very thing — at one time or another, utterly exhausted by a friend, family member or colleague who perpetually lies and gaslights and is never punished for it?
Or who says one thing publicly and does the complete opposite when no one is looking?
And who, adding insult to injury, is then defended by people who definitely know better, who should see through the lying and gaslighting, who should be offended by the hypocrisy, but instead tell you that you’re the crazy one. That you’re, in fact, to blame.
The insanity has finally broken Christian Walker, the son of Georgia’s Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker — and who could blame him?
Amid the latest scandal facing the football player turned political candidate, Christian has had enough. And he’s telling the world.
On Monday, The Daily Beast broke the story that Herschel — who’s taken an absolutist anti-abortion stance in his race against Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock — impregnated a girlfriend in 2009, encouraged her to have an abortion, and paid her for the procedure.
The source of the story is the woman herself, who brought receipts, literally: a $575 receipt from the clinic, a bank deposit slip with a check from Walker and a “get well” card reportedly from Herschel.
Whoops. When the story first broke, Walker called it a “flat-out lie,” and threatened to sue The Daily Beast. But on Tuesday, lawyers walked that back, saying, “no final decision has been made on the future handling of this matter.”
As for Christian, however, his final decision is clear. He is “done.”
Taking to Twitter, Walker’s son — one of four children that Walker has acknowledged having so far — posted two videos in which he excoriates his biological father for what he believes have been lies and hypocrisy.
“I stayed silent as the atrocities committed against my mom were downplayed,” Walker said. “I stayed silent when it came out that my father, Herschel Walker, had all these random kids across the country, none of whom he raised. And you know my favorite issue to talk about is father absence. Surprise! Because it affected me! That’s why I talk about it all the time, because it affected me. Family values people, he has four kids with four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them! He was out having sex with other women!”
It’s impossible not to see the pain and frustration and sheer exasperation in Christian’s tirade. Here’s his dad, a man accused of spousal abuse, of abandoning his children, including Christian himself, and aborting a child, who’s all the while campaigning on family values and religious virtuosity and condemning absentee fathers.
“Don’t lie on my mom, don’t lie on me, don’t lie on the lives you’ve destroyed and act like you’re some moral family man,” Christian says. “Y’all should care about that, conservatives!”
And yet, as we all learn more and more about the scandal-ridden past of this disaster of a candidate, the Republican Party — ye of these supposed “family values” — has remained steadfastly supportive.
Imagine how infuriating that must be for Christian. Imagine hearing Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee who said earlier this year that abortion “is abhorrent and has no place in our society,” defend Walker unequivocally now.
“When the Democrats are losing, as they are right now, they lie and cheat and smear their opponents,” Scott said. “That’s what’s happening right now.”
Of course, the Democrats didn’t make the allegation; Herschel Walker’s ex-girlfriend did. But why should the facts matter?
Former President Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, is also standing by his endorsed candidate and blaming the usual suspects, saying, “Herschel Walker is being slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats.”
Does anything matter anymore?
Hypocrisy and honesty sure don’t seem to matter to the Republican Party, or to the many Georgia voters supporting Walker. He’s currently neck-and-neck with Warnock in the polls.
If voters no longer care that a candidate for public office tells the truth and lives his values, they’ll continue to get the politicians and the government they deserve, and we’ll all be worse off for it.
For those of us who’ve wanted to tear our hair out over the endless hypocrisies, lies and gaslighting of the failed and morally corrupt Republican Party, Christian is just saying what we’ve all wanted to.
“Everything’s been a lie…Don’t try me. Don’t test my authenticity. All of this has been a lie, and you’ve known it. You’ve known, so don’t you dare!”
I hear you, Christian.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
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