Herschel Walker’s son calls candidate a liar and hypocrite over abortion denial

The son of Georgia's Republican US Senate hopeful Herschel Walker called his father a liar and a hypocrite after a media report alleged that the candidate, who has publicly opposed abortion rights, paid for an abortion for a former girlfriend in 2009.

The Daily Beast reported on Monday that Walker, a former pro football player, paid to end the ex-girlfriend's pregnancy when the couple was dating by depositing a $700 check into her bank account for the procedure. Walker vehemently denies the allegations and has threatened to sue the news outlet for defamation.

Walker's son, Christian Walker, was unimpressed by his father's denials.

"I don't care about someone who has a bad past and takes accountability," Christian Walker said in a tweet. "But how DARE YOU LIE and act as though you're some 'moral, Christian, upright man.'"

Christian Walker also said that family members asked his father not to run for office because everyone knew about at least some of his past.

"He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it," Christian Walker added in a series of tweets.

Christian Walker also alleged that the GOP candidate left his family to have sexual encounters with other women and "threatened to kill" his family, which led them to move more than six times in the course of six months.

Herschel Walker acknowledged his son's comments in a tweet by saying: "I LOVE my son no matter what."

Supporters of Herschel Walker then tried to make his son out to be a hypocrite by flooding social media with previous videos of the younger Walker hugging his father warmly and speaking about him glowingly.

In a separate series of tweets, the conservative radio commentator Erick Erickson suggested he had reason to think Republican political operatives in Georgia were particularly concerned about Christian Walker's online rant, saying it "served as the admission against interest" for the candidate and that was "all down hill from there".

But US Senate Republicans chairperson Rick Scott issued a statement saying his group remained supportive of Walker, dismissing the Daily Beast report as a Democratic "smear".

"Republicans stand with him, and Georgians will stand with him, too," the statement from Scott, a Florida US senator, said about Walker.

Walker's former girlfriend, who was not named, said in the Daily Beast article that Walker encouraged her to have the abortion. She supported her claims with a receipt showing a $575 receipt for the procedure and a get-well card signed by Walker.

"This is a flat-out lie and I deny this in the strongest terms possible," Walker wrote in response. Walker has supported a national ban on abortions with no exceptions for cases involving rape, incest or a woman's health being at risk.

His position is especially relevant after the US supreme court in June eliminated the federal abortion rights that had been established by the Roe v Wade case in 1973.

The latest allegation is part of a string of claims about Walker as the midterm elections gear up to take place next month. Earlier this year, another report from the Daily Beast revealed that Walker had three children that he had not previously talked about publicly.

Walker later revealed he had four children.

Walker is running against Raphael Warnock, the pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist church. Polling shows Walker is narrowing the gap with Warnock, a Democrat who is seeking re-election.

The Democrats currently control the US Senate and are trying to maintain that during the midterms. The chamber is split 50-50 between the two parties, but Vice-President Kamala Harris can break ties, and she is a Democrat.