WRIGHTSVILLE, Georgia — Faced with images of a receipt from an abortion clinic and a check from days later and with his name on it, Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker said Sunday that an ex-partner’s allegation that he paid to have her to terminate pregnancy is a lie.
“It’s a lie,” Walker, an anti-abortion Republican and former soccer star, told NBC News in an interview that aired Monday on “TODAY.” “Proof that I did. Showing things like that doesn’t bother me.”
In Sunday’s interview, Walker acknowledged that the $700 check was his, but again said he had no idea what the money might have been for.
“Yeah, that’s my check,” he said.
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The woman, who is the mother of one of Walker’s children, shared images of records with NBC News that she believes document the abortion of a child they fathered in 2009. Walker has denied the allegation that he knew about and paid for the woman’s abortion since it was first reported by The everyday beast earlier this month. The news channel said it confirmed the details of the abortion charge with a close friend who said she was taking care of her after the procedure and said the woman provided both a receipt from the abortion clinic and a bank deposit with an image of Walker’s check that she said. that it was a fee for the procedure. NBC News also spoke to one of the woman’s close friends, who says the woman told her about the abortion at the time and then supported her.
Walker admitted in the interview with NBC News that he had written the woman many checks over the years, called her by her first name and wondered if the woman had a job at the time. The woman told NBC News that this was the only payment Walker ever sent her before they had their child.
NBC News is withholding the woman’s name for privacy reasons.
“You want me to answer something that’s a lie, and everyone’s trying to fool me and make me respond,” Walker said at one point in the discussion.
He added: “Show me where I said this is [for] an abortion.”
When asked why voters should believe him, he said: “Voters believe me because I’ve been very transparent about everything I’ve ever done. You know I’ve written a book about everything I’ve done, I haven’t tried to hide something I’ve ever done.”
The exchange took place during an extensive interview with Walker in his hometown where he grew up, which also touched on former President Donald Trump’s stolen election lies. inflation and other policy issues. His campaign to overthrow incumbent Democratic Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, led to one of the most competitive and volatile Senate races in the country this year. Whichever candidate wins next month’s general election could become his party’s casting vote in a chamber currently split 50-50.
Warnock has turned down a request for an interview. In a statement, his campaign manager Quentin Fulks said: “This campaign will depend on who is ready to represent Georgia and clearly that is not Herschel Walker.”
Abortion has been a major issue in the race since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, eliminating constitutional protections for abortion rights.
During a debate with Warnock on Friday, Walker said he supported an abortion ban in Georgia that provides exceptions for rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in danger. Days later, he denied changing his “no exception in my mind” stance from: months before while describing his stance as consistent with voters in Georgia.
“I will always support life, but I also support what the voice of the people is,” Walker said. “The voice of the people is the Georgia Heartbeat Bill, which contains exceptions. Well, I’m a senator for the people. And I said, one of the problems we have… [is that] senators in Washington have forgotten the people they put there.”
Walker, who’s been? accused of embellishment his work with law enforcement agencies, also defended his use of a badge as a prop during Friday’s debate.
“That’s a legitimate badge,” Walker said. “I always carry it with me. It’s a real badge. It’s not a fake badge.”
Walker added that he has “badges all over Georgia” and pulled out one that he said came from a sheriff in Johnson County, his homeland. He acknowledged that the badge was “honorable” but insisted that the badge allowed him to work alongside the police.
“Anyone can joke, but this badge gives me the right… if something happens in this county, I have the right to work with the police to get things done,” Walker said.
“I never embellish,” Walker added. “I have never yet done it. I work for the police.”
The Johnson County Sheriff confirmed to NBC News that he gave Walker the badge of honor and said he had no problem with Walker bringing it up during his political campaign.
On inflation, Walker reiterated his opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden this year. He raised eyebrows during Friday’s debate when, in response to Warnock’s comment that the measure covered insulin costs, he suggested that those concerned about the drug’s high cost should also “eat right.” When printed on Sunday about patients who have had diabetes since birth, Walker claimed “it doesn’t matter.”
“You still have to eat well,” he said.
Later in the interview, insisting if Biden has done anything he supports, Walker replied:
“Is there one thing he’s done that I support? He eats a lot of ice cream.”
Asked about his struggles with mental illness, which he chronicled in a 2008 book, Walker said he no longer has symptoms of dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder. In the book, Walker wrote about how he developed “alters” to deal with stress and trauma.
“I’m redeemed,” Walker said when asked about his previous treatment for the condition. “I’ll put it this way: everyone wants to talk about a house I used to live in. I don’t live there anymore. I have moved. My life is doing incredible things now.”
Walker has cited the condition when answering questions about allegations of violent episodes in his past, including allegations that he killed his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman. Walker was never criminally charged in That and other cases documented in police reports or interviews over the years. In a 2008 CNN interviewAccording to Grossman, Walker held a gun to her head and a razor to her throat a handful of times. (Walker did not deny her allegations, but said he had no memory of committing the alleged attacks.)
“Everyone outside my book is lying to you,” said Walker, whose memoir Not included the allegations that he pointed a gun at Grossman’s head and threatened to kill her.
“Everything is in my book,” he added. “I’m not trying to promote books, so forgive me.”
Despite Walker’s potential past commitments, Trump strongly encouraged him to seek the Senate seat. But Walker signaled some distance from Trump during Friday’s debate when he said Biden won the 2020 election.
Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the election was stolen from him and expected candidates he supports will repeat his lies.
“Herschel Walker is on the run,” Walker said on Sunday when asked about Trump’s continued false claims about the 2020 result. “President Trump is not running. President Trump, he is in Florida. The current president is President Biden, Senator Warnock and their policies are harming this country.”
When asked if he believed the last election was rigged, Walker replied: “I have no idea and I don’t care. My concern is that these elections are in November.”