Raphael Warnock Remains Largely Silent on Herschel Walker's Scandals

Senator Raphael Warnock offered few comments on the scandals facing his Republican rival Herschel Walker as the candidates took part in their only debate.

While the Georgia Democrat did suggest that Walker "pretended to be a police officer" and referenced an Associated Press report about him allegedly threatening "a shoot-out with police" in 2001, Warnock remained tight-lipped about several other recent scandals involving the former NFL star during the debate in Savannah on Friday.

Perhaps the biggest scandal, an accusation that the vehemently anti-abortion Walker paid for a former girlfriend to have abortion in 2009, was not addressed by Warnock on Friday. Walker, who has denied the allegation multiple times, called it "a lie" during the debate.

Warnock did speak in favor of abortion rights during the debate, saying that he places more "trust" in women making their own health care decisions than in any "politicians" who would like to limit their choices.

However, the senator's unwillingness to speak about Walker's scandal or accuse him of hypocrisy could mean that his campaign is strategically attempting to avoid placing an outsized focus on the topic of abortion before the election.

Progressive independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran as a Democratic candidate in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, wrote in an opinion article published by The Guardian last week that it would be a "mistake" for Democratic candidates to "focus only on abortion."

Sanders asserted that while abortion "must remain on the front burner" for Democrats, "it would be political malpractice for Democrats to ignore the state of the economy and allow Republican lies and distortions to go unanswered."

In addition to not speaking about Walker's abortion scandal during the debate, Warnock has also barely spoken about the allegations on the campaign trail, only briefly calling it "disturbing" shortly after the claim emerged earlier this month.

Warnock recently told Mother Jones that he was not focusing on the scandal because he was instead "focused on the job that the people of Georgia have hired me to do," while adding that "the deep differences between" himself and Walker should be "exceedingly clear" to voters.

Other scandals involving Walker that Warnock did not mention on Friday include accusations of domestic violence against his family and an alleged lack of transparency over how many children he has fathered despite his previous criticism of "fatherless" households.

Newsweek reached out to the Warnock campaign for comment.

After the abortion scandal emerged early this month, Walker's son Christian Walker lashed out at his father on Twitter, accusing him of "lying" and subjecting his family "violence" and death threats.

"You're not a 'family man' when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence," Christian Walker tweeted. "How DARE YOU LIE and act as though you're some 'moral, Christian, upright man.' You've lived a life of DESTROYING other peoples lives."

There has been little indication that the scandals have had any serious impact on Herschel Walker's chances in the election. Although Warnock maintained a lead of 3.3 points over Walker in an average of polls from RealClearPolitics on Friday, some recent surveys have suggested that the race could become even closer as election day approaches.