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Herschel Walker with Donald Trump (in September 2021)
PHOTO: DUSTIN CHAMBERS/ REUTERS
Herschel Walker's election campaign so far can be described – benevolently – as turbulent.
Again and again, the Republican candidate for a Senate seat in Georgia makes people sit up and take notice with some crude statements.
There were also allegations of domestic violence and inflating his resume.
The political newcomer also had to admit that he has three illegitimate children.
Now he's coming under pressure from a report that he once paid for a friend to have an abortion.
The former American football star - a supporter of ex-President Donald Trump - dismissed The Daily Beast's report as a lie and dropped a lawsuit.
Trump said on Tuesday that Walker was a victim of "slander" by the "fake news media" and President Joe Biden's Democrats.
Walker is running in the congressional elections next November and is running for a seat in the US Senate in southern Georgia.
The race against current Sen. Raphael Warnock of the Democratic Party is considered one of the closest Senate races in the nation - and could decide whether Democrats defend their current razor-thin majority in the Congress Chamber or lose it to Republicans.
Walker has a staunchly conservative agenda and opposes abortion rights.
However, »The Daily Beast« reported that the 60-year-old paid for an abortion for his then-girlfriend in 2009.
The woman showed a bill for the abortion and a picture of a $700 check that Walker sent her five days after the abortion, along with a get-well card.
Walker urged her to have the abortion at the time, the unnamed woman said.
The former professional athlete rejected the report in the conservative news channel Fox News.
"I never paid for an abortion, that's a lie." He also never pressured anyone to have an abortion.
When asked about the check, the candidate said, "I send money to a lot of people."
Drastic words from your own family
His son Christian reacted to the latest media report about the abortion with sharp attacks on his father.
In an online video, he accused him, among other things, of making the family a "mockery".
'You're not a family man.
Every member of Herschel Walker's family asked him not to run in the election because we all knew his past.' But Walker decided to give his family the 'middle finger'.
Walker's side, on the other hand, was ex-President Trump, who played a key role in the former football star's candidacy.
"You are trying to destroy a man who has true greatness in his future," the right-wing populist explained.
Trump urged Georgia voters to vote for Walker in November.
Abortion rights are one of the most controversial socio-political issues in the United States.
The country's Supreme Court caused a political earthquake in June when it overturned the nation's fundamental right to abortion, which had been enshrined for nearly 50 years.
Many conservative voters are firmly against abortion.
jok/dpa
