The woman who alleges Herschel Walker paid for her abortion more than a decade ago also says she is the mother of one of his children, the Daily Beast reported Wednesday, an allegation that counters the Georgia Republican's claim that he does not know his accuser.
The news outlet said that when it published an article this week saying Walker had urged a woman to have an abortion in 2009 after he got her pregnant, it had agreed to not reveal her identity over her safety and privacy concerns.
But after Walker, who is challenging Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., for his seat, told Fox News on Wednesday morning that he did not know who the anonymous woman was and characterized the allegation as an attempt by Democrats to hurt his campaign, the woman told the Daily Beast that she was astounded by the comments.
“Sure, I was stunned, but I guess it also doesn’t shock me, that maybe there are just so many of us that he truly doesn’t remember,” she told the news outlet. “But then again, if he really forgot about it, that says something, too.”
The woman said that despite being a “good sport” about Walker’s campaign even after his denial of the abortion allegations, she could no longer withhold the information from the public.
“I’ve been very civil thus far. I keep my mouth shut. I don’t cause any trouble. I stay in the background. But I’m also not gonna get run over time and time again,” she told the Daily Beast. “That’s crazy.”
The Daily Beast reported that the woman is a registered Democrat who had a yearslong relationship with Walker, which continued after she had the abortion. The woman declined to reveal her name because she is the mother of one of Walker’s children and wants to protect her family’s privacy as much as possible while coming forward with the truth, the outlet said.
In a statement shared with NBC News, Walker said, “There’s no truth to this or any other Daily Beast report.”
NBC News has not verified the woman’s allegations or independently reviewed the documents and evidence that the Daily Beast says supports her account.
Asked in an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday morning whether he knows who the accuser is and if he needs to be forgiven for anything, Walker said, “Had that happened, I would have said it, because it’s nothing to be ashamed of there."
"You know, people have done that, but I know nothing about it," he continued. "And if I knew about it, I would be honest and talk about it, but I know nothing about that.”
When asked at a campaign stop in Wadley, Georgia, on Thursday afternoon whether he has reached out to the mothers of his children following the Daily Beast's reporting, Walker said he had not. Pressed for a reason, he said, "Why do I need to?" He added, "I said no, and that's what I mean. When I said no, I said that's not correct, it's a lie, and that's what I mean, it's a lie."
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Asked about his remarks to Hewitt earlier in the day, Walker said when he said there was "nothing to be ashamed of," he wasn't addressing the abortion allegation but rather things that had happened between him and his ex-wife during their relationship.
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“I said this here — the abortion thing — is false. It’s a lie, and that’s what I said," Walker said.
The news outlet said it corroborated the details of the woman's abortion accusation with a close friend whom “she told at the time and who, according to the woman and her friend, took care of her in the days after the procedure.” It also published what the woman said was a “get well” card signed by Walker and said she had provided both the receipt from the abortion clinic and a bank deposit showing an image of Walker’s check reimbursing her for the cost of the procedure. Reached for comment at the time, Walker’s campaign pointed NBC News to his response on Twitter, where he denied the story and said he planned to sue the publication for defamation.
Shortly after the outlet reported Walker paid for the woman’s abortion in 2009, his son Christian Walker expressed outrage in a series of tweets in which he decried the GOP nominee as a bad father, a liar and a hypocrite.
“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,” he said in one of the posts.
“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,” he added.
Earlier reporting by the Daily Beast revealed that Walker also had three children out of wedlock, whom he did not publicly acknowledge during his campaign. Walker and his campaign later acknowledged that he had four children.
National Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, rushed to defend the GOP nominee by describing the Daily Beast’s report of the abortion allegations as a smear — but stopped short of detailing which parts of the report were false.
Walker is an outspoken opponent of abortion and is endorsed by former President Donald Trump. The controversy surrounding recent allegations made against Walker come as abortion has emerged as a key issue for voters after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
