On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "The Beat," anchor Ari Melber tore into Senate Republicans for standing by scandal-plagued NFL veteran and Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker — and focused in particular on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who couldn't even confront reporters' question directly about whether he believed Walker was innocent of the allegations.
Walker, who is running against Democratic Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, allegedly paid for an abortion for a woman he impregnated, and had a separate child with. And the revelation was immediately followed up by his son, right-wing social media activist Christian Walker, calling his father a liar and accusing him of neglecting, abusing, and threatening deadly violence against his family.
"It would appear Republicans are worried that the facts show that Mr. Walker did pay for this abortion, which, as mentioned, contradicts their entire set of rules they want to install in America for everyone else," said Melber. "So here's how they're dealing with it." He played several clips of Republicans defending Walker — the last one being of Cruz.
"This is an effort by Democrats to hold onto power," Cruz said. "Do you stand by Herschel Walker?" a reporter asked Cruz. To which he replied, "I believe Herschel Walker is going to be the next senator, I'm proud to support Herschel Walker."
"You heard Senator Cruz: when asked if he believed, he said, I believe he'll be the next senator, which is not even claiming to weigh in on this moral issue, which is this individual has evidence — as several sources show whether he did pay for this abortion," said Melber. "So, we are just weeks away from the midterms. You have Republicans struggling to deal with what they have called a moral issue. Or just claiming that it's all a lie."
"We've shown you the facts," said Melber. "People will decide for themselves how to weigh this evidence. And they're also — this is interesting. Goes well beyond the Georgia scandal or the Georgia hypocrisy. They're dodging the question, more broadly of what they're running on, which is banning abortion for everyone.
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