Christian Walker, the conservative social media influencer who is also the son of failed Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, has hit out at his father and former president Donald Trump with unsparing criticism after the ex-football star was soundly beaten in Tuesday’s runoff election by Senator Raphael Warnock.
The right-wing TikTok star weighed in on his dad’s humiliating defeat on Twitter, just minutes after news outlets began projecting a victory for Mr Warnock in the fight for a full six-year term in the upper chamber. He made reference to the multiple scandals which have engulfed the Walker campaign over the last few months and attacked defenders of his father who’ve compared his past misconduct to a single disputed incident involving Mr Warnock and his ex-wife.
“Don’t beat women, hold guns to people’s heads, fund abortions, then pretend your pro-life, stalk cheerleaders, leave your multiple minor children alone to chase more fame, lie, lie, lie, say stupid crap, and make a fool of your family ... and then maybe you can win a senate seat,” he wrote.
He also admonished Republicans not to compare the allegation that Mr Warnock once ran over his ex-wife’s foot with his car to the elder Mr Walker “holding guns and knives to my mother’s throat, threatening to kill his therapist, her, and one of his adultresses in a therapy session, and telling my mom and I he was going to beat our a**es”.
The younger Mr Walker initially appeared to be at least somewhat supportive of his dad’s campaign in his social media posts, and made at least one appearance alongside him on the campaign trail. But after The Daily Beast reported that his father had denied allegations of having paid for an abortion for one of his mistresses in 2009, he excoriated his father and called him a liar.
A short time after his initial election night tweets, he hit out at Mr Trump, who first became acquainted with his father when he played for the United States Football League team the then-New York real estate magnate owned in the 1980s, blaming the ex-president for pushing his father to run for senate in spite of his checkered personal history.
“The Truth: Trump called my dad for months DEMANDING that he run,” he said, adding that “everyone with a brain” had “begged” him not to because of his “insane past”.
He also stated that Mr Trump’s decision to push his father into electoral politics was a cynical one driven by a perceived need to run a Black candidate against Mr Warnock, who is a Baptist minister and senior pastor of the Atlanta, Georgia church that was once home to the late Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
“Republicans, we say we don’t play ‘identity politics’ and then you ran this man mainly because he was the same skin color as his opponent with no background other than football,” he said, adding that “a boring old Republican” could have defeated the Democratic incumbent.
The younger Mr Walker also praised his mother, Cindy Grossman, who he said “had her name and image dragged through the media unwillingly” even as she “refused to talk to any journalist after 18 months of stalking”. He added that he only “blew up” after she was “lied on multiple times” by his father.
“I was called a backstabber after getting angry and blowing up from watching my dad lie for 18 months straight ... but he’s not a backstabber for leaving his 2 minor children he kept secret to grow up without a dad as he chases more fame and power? Pathetic,” he said, adding that his critics should “raise [their kids”.
In another tweet, he wrote that his mother “wanted no part” of the political drama around his dad’s failed campaign.
“She married my amazing stepdad and lives a quiet life. I’m so happy she can rest now, and this bull crap is over with,” he said.
