Herschel Walker’s Hypocrisy Matters

Maybe not now, for the GOP faithful. But politics is a long game.

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188
Herschel Walker speaks at a campaign event. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

Herschel Walker, the Republican former football star running for a Georgia Senate seat who supports a total ban on abortion, denies he pressured a former girlfriend to have an abortion, which he paid for. He’s almost certainly lying.

The allegations are easy to believe while his rambling, often contradictory denials are not. The Daily Beast, which broke the story, says it can document the anonymous woman’s claim with, among other things, a $700 check from Walker. We’ve already seen the “get well” card—written in Walker’s handwriting, according to his own son.

Given that Walker has so many demons and skeletons in his closet—he’s like a one-man haunted house—it seems a safe bet the story is true. Even Walker’s denials are taking on a bit of an “even if I did it” hue as he leans into how he’s been “redeemed” and so therefore his past actions (which he didn’t do!) shouldn’t count against him.

Now, here’s the complicated part: Does it matter?

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  1. Avatar photo
    O.M.G. calling from Vaudeville, AZ

    Hershel Walker is a monster on, and off, the field. END TRUMPISM NOW and cross party lines. The Devil went down to Georgia and the Grand Old Party Crasher cost the Republicans not one, but two, Senate seats. For the love,of God and country INDICT TRUMP. #REMEMBERASHLIBABBITT. She died for a BIG LIE uttered over and over and over again by a shameless, mendacious, narcissistic, megalomaniac, crony capitalist pig, reality tv porn star, casino card shark magnate, serial adulterer and Americas Biggest Sore Loser Donald J Trump. Gotta run on. Thanks for taking my rant Dispatch. Long live Jonah. Peace through superior mental firepower

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  2. Mary Stine

    This is one of the best takes I've read on the hot mess in Georgia politics. My army vet hubby would say the four "P"s are on display her: Piss Poor Prior Planning. Surely there were better candidates with a better message?
    Perhaps our politics would be better if we stopped trying to find brutes with simplistic bad solutions and instead looked for thoughtful calm individuals with a talent for getting people to work together. Of course, those people don't make good press releases....

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    Brownmugs

    I am from PA not Georgia. So, I have no dog to hunt here. Except that I care about the Pro-Life cause and Reaganesque conservatism. The way I look at this is that Jonah's piece is accurate yet incomplete. Yes Pro-Lifers and the Georgia GOP would be hypocrites, which is well covered and made clear just about with every news source. What is incomplete is that Georgia Democrats have hypocrisy too. Warnock's wife clearly says that he was abusive and seeks child custody from him. Why is this so downplayed. Georgia would be better off not voting for either. It seems that whichever party wins (or loses) - will have hypocritical voters.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Pat Riot

      Warnock's wife did not say he was abusive. In divorce cases, usually parents fight each other for custody, so that is indicative of nothing.

      Maybe that's why it's downplayed?

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        Brownmugs

        Perhaps, yet she claims he ran over her foot with a car. If true that abuse. Your point is that Warnock's OK in how he treated his wife because she's going through a divorce, hence its suspect. I hear people say the same of Walker's situation and that Warnock is even a Pastor. They say that Warnock claim is also suspect because he has the self interest of running for office. He just gets far less media coverage. What's clear is that neither appears to be very good husbands. That makes both of them suspect to me.

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        1. Scianti7

          According to the police report from the single instance, the foot did not appear hurt, no charges were filed in the Warnock incident. Walker on the other hand was reported to hold a gun to his wife's head, & multiple former partners reported violence. I can't now remember all the different details but Mr. Walker said something of an admission but that it was multiple-personality disorder--which no one wants to discuss either. I wouldn't want to be insensitive to that level of mental illness (where there are crimes that are not held to account), at the same time, it is not what I would want for a Federal level official, even a Congressman, much less a Senator. If you are "insane" enough to not answer for assault with a deadly weapon, maybe you shouldn't be a U.S. Senator.

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            Jeff Younger

            Well, perhaps the good Rev. Warnock could explain why he receives a housing stipend of over $7k a month from Ebenezer Baptist Church, while the church is in the process of evicting tenets from church-owned apartments for as little as $25 in unpaid rent. That seems to be every bit as hypocritical and indefensible as anything Walker has done. Don’t misunderstand, neither man is, IMHO, qualified to serve in the US Senate, but one of them will. Warnock has the potential to do this nation much more damage than Walker, if the last 20 months of Biden & Democrat Party control of Congress are any indication.

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  4. Rblik

    A major feature of Trumpism is never having to apologize. This appeals to many people, evidently. The problem of course is that if you refuse to hold anyone to any standard of behavior, you will invariably get lower and lower quality. And you end up fighting like heck to push a CTE riddled ex-jock to win a Senate seat in a red state vs a hard core lefty. This is the GOP's future. One by one, senators will retire and be replaced by "Hershaels". Looks like he's toast, btw.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Jeff Younger

      I don’t think it’s a done deal (the “Trumpification” of the GOP). As long as someone else (other than Trump) is the nominee in 2024, the GOP will have an opportunity to leave the cult of Trump behind. Whomever Carrie’s the GOP banner will need to actually stand for a set of conservative principles, not merely self-aggrandizement.

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    Earl King

    I'm just going to say this. Zero legal abortions is a morally dubious position. There are reasons for an abortion. Just starting with life of the mother, rape and incest. Lastly is the dubious moral unwanted pregnancy abortion is really the only one that the pro-life movement is attempting to end. This is the one that Nancy Pelosi and as far as I can tell every Democrat candidate supports up until the birth of the child. Hell Roe supported viability bans which would be approx. 20 to 22 weeks. We are not able to birth a child prior mostly due to them not have sufficient lung function to live outside the womb.
    The GOP has botched this poorly. I don't see a backlash from 15 week abortion bans from the GOP base. Lindsey Graham offered up a 20 week ban and I don't believe they even had a vote in the Senate. I think you can wholly justify a 15 week ban for unwanted pregnancies, possibly rape and incest. Life of the mother should be available even up to delivery....A mother can usually have more children but cannot be replaced.

    Conceded that Walker is a terrible candidate and Donald Trump is no Machiavelli. He is the least politically intuitive political I have seen recently. He squandered his opportunity by his narcissistic actions. Why Walker would take such an extreme position on abortion is beyond me. It is not politically tenable. The US population is not for a total ban on abortios.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Jeff Younger

      If Bill Clinton and the Democrats had really meant it when he said he wanted abortion safe, legal, & rare, the issue would have been largely put to bed. He had the votes (as did Obama a decade later) to pass the Freedom of Choice Act, which would have generally codified Roe while allowing some modest restrictions (late term abortions, parental notification, Hyde amendment, etc.). Unfortunately the extremists on the Left wouldn’t allow ANYTHING less than taxpayer funded abortion on demand until birth, with ZERO restrictions. The zealotry of the extremists on both ends of the abortion battle have kept this issue in play, no doubt it’s a cash cow for each of them.

      IMHO, the “give no quarter” approach these sides have taken has spilled over into almost every other issue, and has prevented the parties from compromising on much of anything. It’s caused our politics to become far less stable, snapping back and forth with nearly every election. I have to believe there’s a sizable (and growing) chunk of the electorate who would welcome a return to the compromises that were fairly common through most of our history. Unfortunately the moderates who typically facilitate such compromise are few and far between. You could probably fit the remaining Congressional blue dog Democrats and “maverick” Republicans into a minivan.

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        Akhenaton06

        The GOP made overturning Roe a primary political goal in the late 70s/early 80s shortly after the case was decided by SCOTUS in order to galvanize social conservatives as the main driving force behind the emerging Moral Majority within the Republican Party. Prior to that, opposition to abortion was largely restricted to the Roman Catholic voting bloc. Seemingly nearly major sociopolitical judicial decision or legislative act rooted in the nationwide cultural conflicts that arose in the 50s-70s was opposed by conservatives from the very beginning, particularly in the courts.

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    Ed P

    Great piece, thank you. Sincerity and authenticity do indeed matter and unfortunately in short supply at this moment.

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    Pat Riot

    This is a good article apropos to our discussion:

    "Republican senators balked at demands from an anti-abortion group. So the advocates backed down."

    https://medium.com/semafor-media/republican-senators-balked-at-demands-from-an-anti-abortion-group-so-the-advocates-backed-down-81a8725c0888

    Abortion abolition, it seems, is headed the way of fiscal conservatism, personal character, Obamacare repeal, and a bunch of other old Republican hobbyhorses.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Mike Shigley

    So, how did the "Daily Beast" get a copy of the $700 check? Once a check is cashed it is supposed to be returned to the sender or go into the issuing bank's electronic vault. Therefore, either Walker or someone close to him leaked it, or someone in the bank violated privacy rules by leaking it, or the woman made a copy of the check before she cashed it. None of these alternatives speak well for the leaking party.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Skinnygramps

      The woman has the ATM deposit receipt bearing an image of the check. There is nothing nefarious about it.

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    2. Terry Granger

      Why is that relevant? It feels like a distraction away from the real story which is a typical tactic when it comes to denialism...

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      Ms. SSM

      Every check I ever deposited I can pull up easily online at Wells Fargo. It’s really not that hard to get a copy of an old check.

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      Mick.Staton

      Some banks will make a copy of the cancelled check on the deposit slip. That is how I have heard it explained in this case.

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  9. Seth Halpern

    As long as the official pro life movement considers itself a subset of the Trumpist GOP, anything that makes their work "a lot harder, for a long time" is okay by me. I'm one of those people who think the GOP has no future as a small d democratic party. For the foreseeable future, I want it to be as unpopular as humanly possible. Who knows, maybe eventually RtL™ will do a cost benefit analysis and stop selling its soul to corrupt authoritarians.

    BTW, I know Jonah thinks there are still "normie" Republicans who need to be supported on principle, but it looks from here as if they're all in denial.

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      Pat Riot

      There are indeed "normies". They are the tiny minority. They only effect they will have will be to give more power to the non-normies. Hence supporting the normies means supporting Trump et. al.

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  10. Halvor

    The scandal is that Herschel is semi-fascist. The silver lining to the scandal is that Republican voters are moving on from Puritanism towards a toleration of banal concupiscence. I also find it refreshing when citizens vote party line, not “the man” (or woman), because the parties make all the difference. When Mr. Herschel goes to Washington, the only thing he needs to know is which button to push when American Greatness tells him how to vote.

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    1. Mike.Amundson.76

      Does everyone else know the definition of a Semi fascist?
      The sentence implies an authoritative position of superior judgement. Aside from the leading sentence the remaining sentiments apply to many politicians on both parties. Pulling the lever for the party and not representing citizens of a state or district is expected for the drones on the ballot.

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      Pat Riot

      People who *actually* care about abortion abolition or character are kidding themselves if they thing catapulting the opposite to national office is going to help their cause.

      I personally conclude that almost all of these people are just *saying* that is what they want...

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    3. Georges

      I don’t disagree with Mr Goldberg that character matters.
      But I think his judgement is narrow.
      Yes, Herschel Walker is a flawed candidate, a flawed human being.
      I wonder if we should ask a different question: what is the battle we are trying to win and what price are we willing to pay to win it?
      I’d suggest that voting for the opposition (Mr Warnock) is not exactly a great choice either and it comes with significant liabilities.
      Obviously we need better candidates. How we will get them in today’s environment is not obvious.
      In the meantime voting for the lesser of two evils is the choice we’ve got and the calculation of “lesser” is not always easy either.

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        Brianj

        "Obviously we need better candidates. How we will get them in today’s environment is not obvious."
        But I know how we'll keep getting them - holding our noses and voting for the lesser of 2 evils, as opposed to protesting loudly with voice and by leaving boxes unchecked on the ballot.

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        1. Georges

          Not voting just leaves the choice up to those who do.
          It’s not obvious that low voter turnout makes for better candidates. We’ve bemoaned that for decades.
          Afaik losing elections is the only thing that can change a party’s thinking and even that may be overrated.
          If anyone has new/better ideas I would really like to hear them.

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            Ed P

            How about all the 3rd parties band together and give it a go? We desperately need viable competition.

            Rank choice voting rather than primaries is also an interesting development, but I don’t know the results are in quite yet.

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            Porouke

            The problem, though, is with the primary voters. They are showing themselves to be wildly irresponsible. They only care about winning. Therefore, the only thing that is likely to get them to start behaving more responsibly is for them to lose with these kinds of candidates. Kemp winning going away and Walker losing would send a strong message. In some cases, that means punting the ball and voting for the other party even though you disagree with them politically on a lot. In others, it means going for it on 4th and 35 and voting third party even though you know it’s gonna fail (I can’t vote for Warnock, so this is what I’ll be doing). In any case, the primary voters need to visibly see the votes they left on the table by being so reckless with their spring votes.

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    4. Georges

      Is this materially different from the Democrat side?

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        Patti Scriffiny

        On this issue, there is a difference. The GOP claims moral high ground on abortion, just like the Democrats claim moral high ground on anti-racism. I agree with Jonah's analysis that you can win a battle and then go on to lose the war. Making abortion illegal is not the same as ending abortion, which I know I would love to see. There has to be a shift in public thinking to actually end abortion, and Walker's alleged actions and certainly his response make no progress toward a shift in thinking. I am also not going to hold my nose and vote for anyone. They have to earn my vote, and not just by being the least worst.

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