National Republicans Stick with Herschel Walker Through Media Attacks

Influential national Republicans are rallying behind Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker after a spurt of left-wing media attacks Monday night put the Walker campaign on defense.

Spokesmen from both the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) spoke out in support of Walker following the Daily Beast alleging that Walker, who is vocally pro-life, urged a woman to abort their unborn baby in 2009.

The report, and Walker’s emphatic denial of it, were then followed by a barrage of online attacks from his 23-year-old son, Christian, who accused Walker of lying to the public about his personal life and being a violent and absent father rather than a “family man.”

After the tumultuous chain of events, many mainstream outlets seized on Christian’s comments, putting forth headlines highlighting the younger Walker’s accusations against his father.

The Washington Post published an op-ed titled “As Herschel Walker’s son erupts, the GOP has only itself to blame.” The Daily Beast followed up on its initial reporting with a play-by-play of Christian’s social media spree. The Never Trump Lincoln Project used the moment to attack the Republican Party.

The SLF, a PAC affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), was undeterred by the media firestorm.

“We are full speed ahead in Georgia. This election is about the future of the country — Herschel Walker will make things better, Raphael Warnock is making it worse,” SLF chief Steven Law said in a statement. “Anything else is a distraction.”

The NRSC, which, along with the SLF, has poured several millions of dollars into boosting Walker in the battleground Senate race, also said the attacks were an attempt “to distract” from present-day issues such as “skyrocketing inflation, a raging border crisis, and crime in Georgia communities.”

“Democrats and the media have tried to stir up nonsense about what has or hasn’t happened in Herschel Walker’s past because they want to distract from what is happening in the present,” NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline said in a statement.

NRSC chairman Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) also stood up for Walker, charging that Democrats have “cranked up the smear machine.”

“When the Democrats are losing, as they are right now, they lie and cheat and smear their opponents. That’s what’s happening right now,” Scott said in a statement. “They know they are on the verge of losing the Senate, and they know that Herschel Walker is winning, so they have cranked up the smear machine.”

Former President Donald Trump, who has long been a backer of Walker’s Senate bid, lambasted the “Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats” by whom he said Walker is being “slandered and maligned.”

Alluding to past reports of Warnock’s domestic turmoil with his ex-wife, Trump stated, “Interestingly, I’ve heard many horrible things about his opponent, Raphael Warnock, things that nobody should be talking about, so we don’t.”

Trump added:

It’s very important for our Country and the Great State of Georgia that Herschel Walker wins this Election. With all that Herschel has accomplished, when you come from Georgia, and you see the name Herschel Walker when voting, it will be very hard to resist. Don’t!

The national pro-life group SBA List, which has endorsed Walker, also said it would continue to “stand firmly alongside” Walker.

Walker on Monday night denied the Daily Beast’s report, calling it a “flat-out lie” during a television appearance with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

“I can tell you right now, I never asked anyone to get an abortion. I never paid for an abortion, and it’s a lie,” Walker told Hannity. “They’ve jeopardized my kids. They’ve jeopardized my family. They think they can threaten me. They think they can scare me. Right now, all that’s done is that’s energized me even more.”

In response to the allegations leveled by his son, Walker said in a brief statement online, “I LOVE my son no matter what.”