CARROLLTON, Ga. – EXCLUSIVE – With four weeks to go until Election Day and Herschel Walker facing the biggest controversy of his Senate campaign, the Republican nominee in Georgia argued that Democrats have “woken a grizzly bear.”
Walker, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital aboard his campaign bus ahead of a campaign event in this northwestern Georgia city, pointed to his appearance with Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and emphasized that “this party is behind me.”
Walker, who’s challenging first-term Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia in a race that’s among a handful across the country that will likely determine if the GOP wins back the Senate majority in November’s midterm elections, for over a week has been continuing to deny a bombshell report that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion 13 years ago.
The Daily Beast reported that Walker in 2009 urged an unnamed former girlfriend to get an abortion after she became pregnant while they were dating, and that he reimbursed her $700 for the procedure. The report cited interviews with a woman who said she had a bank receipt showing Walker’s alleged payment, and a “get well” card that he reportedly sent her.
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Herschel Walker, flanked by GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, left, and Rick Scott of Florida, speaks to supporters in Carrollton, Georgia, on Oct. 12, 2022.
(Fox News)
The report said the woman provided proof of her intimate relationship with Walker, and that they corroborated details in the woman’s story with a close friend who said she took care of her in days following the alleged abortion. Fox News has not verified the reporting.
Walker — who is a vocal opponent of legalized abortion and supports a proposed 15-week federal ban against the procedure — in an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity” hours after the news broke, called the allegations “a flat-out lie.”
The former college and professional football start has repeated that line ever since, reiterating to Fox News Digital on Tuesday that “it’s a lie.”
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After its initial report, the Daily Beast later reported that the same unidentified woman — three years after her abortion — had a child with Walker. The woman claimed in an interview with the New York Times that Walker encouraged to her to have another abortion, but she refused. Walker has denied that claim as well.
Aboard his campaign bus, Walker pushed back against charges from critics that he’s a hypocrite when it comes to abortion, saying: “it’s a lie so I’m not a hypocrite.”
Last week’s controversy was further heightened by Walker’s son by his ex-wife, conservative influencer Christian Walker, who tweeted that his father is “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.”
On Tuesday, a pro-Democratic super PAC launched a new TV ad that used Christian Walker’s tweet to target Walker.
Senate candidate Herschel Walker is interviewed by Fox News Digital, aboard his campaign bus, on Oct. 12, 2022, in Carrollton, Georgia.
(Fox News)
Asked about his son’s appearance in the new spot, Walker told Fox News “I love him to death. I hope they’re paying him. I’ve been paying his rent for a long time. So I hope they’re paying him a little bit. But I love him to death.”
And he once again charged that with so much on the line in the Senate race, Democrats are “coming up with anything they can come up with.”
“They don’t realize that they’ve woken a grizzly bear,” he insisted. “Now they got a fight on their hand. Before I was just going to beat them by a little bit. Now I’m going to beat them by a lot.”
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Minutes later, speaking to the crowd of supporters, Walker repeated the line, saying “I don’t think they know that they woke up a bear…so they got to bring more than that.”
And he urged the crowd to “wake up… it’s time for us to stand up, to straighten up.
With under a month to go until Election Day, the appearance by Scott and Cotton was another sign that the GOP is standing firmly behind Walker.
“We’re here for one reason. We’re going to make sure we’ll do everything we can to help Herschel Walker become the next senator from Georgia,” Scott told reporters.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock greets supporters as he arrives at a senior center in Norcross, Georgia, on Sept. 27, 2022.
(Fox News)
And pointing to Warnock — the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach — Scott said: “here’s a guy who’s abused his wife.”
The NRSC chair was referring to past accusations by Warnock’s ex-wife that he ran over her foot with a car following a 2020 dispute outside her townhouse. Warnock previously denied that he hit his wife with his vehicle, and he was not charged with a crime.
Scott insisted that inflation, crime, border security, and education were on the minds of Georgia voters, not Walker’s abortion controversy.
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Cotton, a rising star in the GOP, pointed to Warnock’s voting record in the Senate and argued that “Raphael Warnock has been a rubber stamp for Joe Biden” and touted that “Herschel Walker will pump the brakes on the Biden agenda.”
Warnock narrowly defeated GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler one of Georgia’s twin Jan. 5, 2021, Senate runoff elections – to help the Democrats win back the chamber’s majority. He’s now running for a full six-year term.
Walker, who won a Heisman Trophy and helped steer the University of Georgia to a college football national championship four decades ago, jumped into the GOP race to face off against Warnock in the summer of last year, after months of support and encouragement to run for the Senate by former President Donald Trump, his longtime friend.
Herschel Walker takes photos with supporters at a campaign event in Carrollton, Georgia, on Oct. 12, 2022.
(Fox News)
Thanks to his legendary status among many in Georgia and his immense, favorable, name recognition in the Peach State, Walker instantly became the overwhelming front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination and basically ignored the field of lesser-known primary rivals, declining to take part in debates as he focused his campaign on Warnock. Walker ended up trouncing his rivals in the May primary, but he quickly came under fire as the general election got underway.
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Walker has been heavily criticized both on the campaign trail and in ads over what Democrats call his numerous “bizarre or false statements.” A TV ad by Warnock’s campaign that launched over the summer highlighted past comments by Walker saying that he had a “dry mist” that would “kill any COVID on your body.”
Walker has also taken incoming fire over numerous reports that he overinflated the success of his businesses and academic record and was forced to play defense regarding a number of personal controversies — from the allegations of past abuse and threats against his first wife, to acknowledging children he fathered out of wedlock that he had not previously publicly mentioned despite for decades criticizing absent fathers.
Warnock enjoys a large fundraising advantage over Walker — although the GOP nominee has picked up the pace in recent months. And the Democratic incumbent holds a mid-single digit edge over his challenger in an average of the latest public opinion polls.
