Former football star Herschel Walker faced defeat in a high-stakes US Senate election in Georgia last year against his Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock. In an attempt to aid Walker’s campaign, former President Donald Trump advised him to “Just call him a child abuser.” Initially, Walker did not follow Trump’s advice and refrained from using the slur during his debate with Warnock, who is a church pastor. However, according to Jonathan Karl, ABC News’s chief Washington correspondent and author of a new book on Trump’s Republican party, “all bets were off once the race went to a run-off.”
During a campaign event in late November, Walker falsely claimed to his supporters that Warnock was responsible for sexual and physical abuse at a camp. Trump’s advice and Walker’s distorted version of the slur are detailed in Karl’s book, Tired of Winning, which was published on Tuesday in the US. The source for Karl’s account is an unidentified senior adviser to Walker who witnessed the conversation. Walker even put the call on speakerphone so that his team could hear the advice being offered.
The allegation against Warnock revolves around an incident in 2002 at a Maryland summer camp run by a church where he served as senior pastor at the time. The accusation came to light during Warnock’s first successful Senate run, which culminated in a runoff victory in January 2021. According to Karl, a camper claimed that a counselor punished him for bed-wetting by throwing urine at him and locking him outside overnight. The allegation resulted in a reported financial settlement. However, Karl emphasizes that labeling Warnock a “child molester” was baseless, as there were no allegations of sexual abuse against him. Warnock was merely the pastor of the church, not the camp director.
The Baltimore Sun reported at the time that Warnock and another church official were arrested for interfering with the investigation into the alleged abuse. However, the charges were later dismissed. When the incident was brought up by Republican Kelly Loeffler during the 2020 campaign, a spokesperson for Warnock clarified that he was protecting the rights of young people to have legal representation or a parent present during questioning. Law enforcement officials commended Warnock for his assistance in the investigation.
Karl also highlights Walker’s own controversies surrounding allegations of domestic violence and reports that he paid for an abortion. Despite these issues, Warnock emerged victorious in the runoff, helping the Democrats maintain control of the Senate.
