CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings on Wednesday declared that he was unbothered about revelations that GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion, claiming “there’s too much at stake” for Republicans.
In the wake of The Daily Beast reporting that Walker—who is running on an extreme anti-abortion platform—urged his former girlfriend to get an abortion in 2009 and then paid for it, conservative lawmakers, officials, and media figures have all rallied around the ex-football hero.
Right-wing talk radio host Dana Loesch, for instance, made it abundantly clear on Tuesday that despite her anti-abortion principles, she doesn’t care that Walker paid for an abortion as long as the GOP takes the Senate this fall.
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“So, does this change anything? Do you want my opinion? You’re listening. Not a damn thing. How many times have I said four very important words? These four words: winning is a virtue. What I’m about to say is in no means a contradiction or a compromise of a principle,” Loesch argued on her show.
“And, please keep in mind that I am concerned about one thing, and one thing only at this point. So, I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles,” she added. “I want control of the Senate.”
During a CNN panel discussion on Wednesday afternoon, anchor Victor Blackwell aired Loesch’s remarks before asking Jennings—who has repeatedly touted his own anti-abortion stance—for his reaction.
“Is that the theory now is that it really doesn’t matter if he’s violated the orthodoxy of the Republican Party, which is anti-abortion?” Blackwell wondered. “‘We want the gavel. We want control of the Senate. We’ll dismiss this if it’s true.’”
Declaring “absolutely,” Jennings echoed CNN political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson’s observation that the Georgia Senate race is “extremely close” before adding that most Republicans in the state will hold similar views as Loesch’s.
“Let me ask what you think, Scott. Do you care?” Blackwell interjected.
“My view is, there’s too much at stake,” the former GOP strategist shot back. “And you’re asking me, as a Republican who thinks this country’s off in the ditch, well, Herschel Walker maybe did something 13 years ago, so I got to let Joe Biden and the Democrats continue to have unfettered policy access? No thanks!”
After shrugging off the allegations against Walker, Jennings insisted that this is how “I’m analyzing it and I suspect most Republicans will go there,” adding that while “some people may analyze it differently” this is “personally where” he is.
“I think it’s true that more Republicans have abortions than we sort of think they do,” Henderson chimed in. “The public and the political stance is an anti-abortion stance, but I think we know that both Republicans and Democrats have taken advantage of getting abortions and that will continue in this country no matter what their sort of public and political pronouncements are.”
Blackwell, for his part, concluded by stating, “The question is the hypocrisy,” since Walker has publicly said he doesn’t believe in any exceptions for abortion, yet the party now says “'we’ll excuse it if it’s true' because they want control.”
While Jennings feels that Republicans should be willing to look past Walker's latest scandals in order to secure the Senate this year, he did call for “every Republican” to disavow former President Donald Trump’s recent “assassination instructions” against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Jennings, coincidentally, was once a McConnell aide.
