Ever since news broke that Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for the US Senate in Georgia, paid for his girlfriend’s abortion in 2009, Democrats have been beating Walker — and those defending him — for hypocrisy in one of his key political positions.
But nearly two weeks since the revelation, first reported by The Daily Beast, that the mother of one of Herschel Walker’s children terminated a pregnancy at his request, one person has remained conspicuously silent on the subject: President Joe Biden.
Unlike nearly all prominent members of his party, Biden, who has rocketed significantly to the Democratic base in recent weeks, has not referred to Walker at party fundraisers, in engagements with reporters, or at public events. According to Biden’s allies, longtime advisers and partisan strategies, the decision not to nationalize Walker’s past actions is likely part of political calculus – to avoid injecting himself into a local race – and part of personal preference – to avoid turning a painful family crisis into campaign fodder.
Karen Feeney, Democratic chancellor and former spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, said. “I think there’s an appreciation that in a personal family business, there have to be some things that are actually taboo.”
The president, more than most politicians, is familiar with arming highly personal family matters from political opponents. Just this weekend, Fox News host Sean Hannity amplified his show with a voicemail mysteriously obtained from Biden to his son, Hunter, asking him to seek treatment for a substance use disorder.
One of Biden’s longtime allies told The Daily Beast, referring to Christian Walker, the candidate’s son who in recent days has vehemently denounced his father’s absence from his childhood and alleged abuse of his sons’ mothers. “You don’t need to exploit children and personal pain to win.”
There is, of course, the realpolitik of risking Biden pumping himself into a tight midterm race in a country where Approval rate is only 37%. Biden, by virtue of being president, nationalizes nearly everything he touches — not what Senator Raphael Warnock, Locker’s Democratic opponent, needed in the final weeks of the campaign.
Georgia, Georgia, Georgia. That should be the message,” a Georgia-based Democratic consultant who has worked with Warnock in the past told The Daily Beast. “One of the only rounds Walker left in the room—and he literally did it. [on Tuesday]—The Reverend Warnock is calling a small dog dog for the Biden White House. No need to give an ounce of credibility.”
Liz Smith, a longtime Democratic worker, said the more local the Georgia Senate race remains, the better for Warnock — even if the race is now mired in the abortion issue that has enliven Democratic voters across the country.
“It’s not Joe Biden’s job to define Herschel Walker, and it wouldn’t be particularly helpful to Senator Warnock for the president to try,” Smith said, adding that she would recommend Democrats stay “hyper-focused” on their race. . “It is completely delusional for anyone to think that the nationalization of the Walker scandal will somehow tip the Senate race in Nevada or Arizona toward the Democrats.”
The White House communications team, like Biden, has maintained a clear silence about Walker, although White House press secretary Karen-Jean-Pierre has yet to be asked about it in the briefing room, and Hatch Act restrictions prevent civil servants from thinking deeply. in political issues. In response to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on why President Booker was not interested, a White House spokesperson noted these restrictions.
However, Biden felt free to influence other congressional elections, albeit with an emphasis on political differences – and most notably his concern for candidates who believed he was not legitimately elected – rather than their personal backgrounds or gaffes.
Some veterans said that, given Biden’s occasional difficulty staying on top of the message on the abortion issue, silence about the details of Walker’s actions might be for the best.
Former Republican political advisor Tim Miller, who suggested that Walker could still be pointed by Democrats more broadly as an example of why a blanket ban on abortion hasn’t worked, said former Republican political advisor Tim Miller.
“To say that these men want to ban abortion without exception for vulnerable women while paying for the abortions themselves is compelling,” Miller said.
Despite Biden’s previous difficulty debating the issue, the president has made the reproductive option a central component of his presentation to voters ahead of the midterm elections, pointing to a proposed national abortion ban as evidence that the Republican Party has become too extreme to hand it over. .
Speaking to attendees at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at a private residence in New Jersey on Friday, Biden launched an extended debate about the Supreme Court’s repeal of a law. Raw vs. Wade Earlier this year, he described it as a preview of threats to other constitutional rights ahead.
“She’s no exception,” Biden said of Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposed bill to ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. “In some cases, a mother’s life is no exception. And some of you docs, or have sons or daughters as docs, are very worried about what they can do without being criminally responsible for anything.”
Finney suggested that these are personal terms Biden could use to frame the case – rather than the details of Walker’s story, which has yet to be told.
“We see the demarcation between this family’s personal pain, which should be off the table, and issues of legitimate and important policy,” Finney said. This is the line Biden feels comfortable in.
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