Speaking to NBC’s “Today Show” on Monday morning, Walker admitted that he gave a $700 check to a woman he was dating in 2009, but denied knowing it was to cover the costs of aborting her pregnancy.
“Yes, that’s my check,” Walker said after being shown an image of the check. Moments earlier, he was also shown a receipt from an abortion clinic dated a few days prior to the date on the check and for slightly less than the amount of the check.
However, he rejected the woman’s claim, first published last week by The Daily Beast, that he had encouraged her to end the pregnancy and that he had reimbursed her for the cost of it.
“It’s a lie,” Walker asserted on Monday. “Prove that I did that. Just to show me things like that does nothing for me.”
He noted that he and the woman were a couple for a while and that he’d written her many checks, including while she was unemployed.
Walker is running on the Republican ticket to challenge US Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) Senate seat representing Georgia. He has carved out a position as a strongly anti-abortion candidate, publicly backing a proposal by US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) last month to institute a 15-week abortion ban nationwide. Former US President Donald Trump has endorsed him.
However, while Walker debated Warnock in the port city of Savannah on Friday, he declined to participate in a second debate on Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia’s capital city. Warnock used the opportunity to accuse him of not “showing up” for Georgians.
"I think it’s important to point out that my opponent Herschel Walker is not here, and I think that half of being a senator is showing up," Warnock said at the beginning of the debate. "That’s half of life. And I have shown up for the people of Georgia time and time again."
NBC did not ask Walker about the Sunday no-show. The election is on November 8.