Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D-50th District) finally spoke out about his two-week disappearance from the campaign trail, and his softball interview with NBC’s Phil Prazan raised more questions than it answered.
As we reported on Sunday, audio released by independent journalist Nick Sortor appears to show that the Lindner Center of Hope, a mental health facility in Mason, Ohio, discharged the Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate earlier this week. Sortor and Rhein Amacher gave Talarico until 1 p.m. ET Sunday to explain his absence, or they would expose the truth. The Talarico campaign didn’t respond, and the recording was posted after the deadline passed.
On the call, Amacher asks whether the facility has anything for James Talarico.
“It looks like he was just discharged this evening,” an unidentified female employee says.
Talarico’s campaign angrily denied it.
“This is a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory,” spokesman JT Ennis wrote on X. “Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas recovering from the flu.”
Inevitably, Talarico had to address the situation personally, and what a softball interview it was. For starters, Talarico went two weeks without an in-person campaign event in Texas, yet Prazan shrank that to “roughly nine days” in his first question.
“Yeah, I got the flu, and I’m feeling much better, and I’m glad I had a chance to recover,” Talarico told him. “I’m glad we made the decision to just take the week, get better, and now I’m glad to be back on the trail.”
Prazan then handed him the diabetic explanation, which many predicted would happen, noting that the flu can hit diabetics hard before asking whether Talarico ever needed a doctor or a hospital.
