Walker denies reports he paid for woman’s abortion: ‘She’s lying’

Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker (R) strongly denied reporting that he had any conversations with a woman, who is the the mother of one of his four children, about having an abortion or paying for one in a new interview aired on Tuesday.

Walker has been under intense scrutiny after The Daily Beast reported earlier this month that the former NFL player had allegedly paid for a then-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009, with the woman providing the news outlet a card signed by Walker, a receipt of the abortion expense from the clinic she went to and an image of a $700 check from the candidate on a bank deposit receipt.

The New York Times separately reported that Walker had allegedly asked the woman to undergo a second abortion in 2011, but the woman decided to have the child instead. Neither of those reports have been independently verified by The Hill.

In an interview with ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis on Tuesday, Walker hit back against some of the accusations, refuting the idea he had a conversation with the woman about an abortion or that he had given any money to pay for one.

“Yes,” he affirmed, when asked if the woman who made the accusations against him was lying.

“She’s lying. Yes, she’s lying. Yes, she’s lying,” before later adding, “Flat-out denial. Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie. And you know what’s sad about it, they had — what was it — a receipt and had a check and had all that — hadn’t shown anything. Hadn’t shown me having said something about an abortion, and that’s — that’s what’s terrible.”

Walker also argued it was not true that he had seen his child only three times, saying he had seen his son more than that.

“But that’s one of things I won’t get into because they make it difficult for me to see him,” he noted.

Walker’s interview comes at a critical time in his campaign with less than a month out from the November midterms. He’s taking on Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and the seat has been rated as a “toss up” by the nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report. Recent polls have shown Walker closing the gap, though an Emerson College Polling-The Hill survey released Tuesday showed Warnock leading Walker 48 percent to 46 percent, albeit within the margin of error.

Republicans have come to Walker’s defense in a sign of how critical the Senate race is for their chances of flipping the Senate.

Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) stumped for Walker earlier on Tuesday, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in an interview with CNN the same day said the GOP was “sticking with Walker.”

Asked during the interview what his position on abortion was, Walker said, “I’m a Christian. I believe in life,” adding, “I believe in the Georgia heartbeat bill, you know, that has exceptions in it. Because that’s from the people, the people — that’s from the people. But for me, I believe in life.”

The interview also aired less than hour after The Washington Post reported that the woman, for whom Walker allegedly paid for an abortion, had to repeatedly push the former NFL star for financial assistance for the procedure. The report cites the woman and a person whom the woman talked to about the experience. 

The Hill has reached out to Walker’s campaign for further comment on that report.