SICK AND WRONG

MAGA Conspiracy Theory on Dem Star Takes Devastating New Hit

It’s the second enormous dagger stabbed into the bizarre theory’s heart.

MAGA’s bonkers James Talarico conspiracy theory has been proven wrong yet again.

The Democratic Senate candidate for Texas was off sick from the campaign trail last week, amid his bitter battle with Donald Trump-endorsed GOP candidate Ken Paxton.

The congressman’s absence sparked rampant speculation from right-wing influencers like Nick Sortor, who erroneously stated that “Ohio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week,” claiming that “the ‘flu’ thing was a BIG FAT LIE.”

SICK BURN

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The hospital has since trashed Sortor’s claims, saying that Talarico has never been a patient at the Lindner Center of Hope near Cincinnati, and a New York Times analysis now strongly suggests he wasn’t at any other hospitals either.

It reviewed timestamped images from a security camera at the 37-year-old’s home, which it says show him at the entrances and around the exterior between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, the dates he was missing from the trail while he recovered from the flu.

He was back on the road on Friday, Oct. 9.

Paxton’s team leaned into the conspiracy, with his spokesperson Madison Cercy telling the Texas Tribune last week that “Low-T Jimmy appears to be having a full-blown mental Tala-freak-out on the national stage.”

“If James Talarico is too fragile to face Texans, he has no business asking for their vote.”

At a campaign rally with Trump last week, Paxton led a chant of “Where Is James Talarico?” with the crowd, and even set up a tip line stunt asking if anyone had any information on his whereabouts.

Sortor meanwhile called his social media post claiming that Talarico had “been a patient at the Lindner Center of Hope near Cincinnati, Ohio” an “exclusive.”

“While I sympathize with those dealing with mental health crises, this man is CLEARLY not suited to become a US Senator representing over 30 MILLION TEXANS,” he said.

It was engaged with by MAGA figures, including Elon Musk and commentator Megyn Kelly, who kept pushing the theory after it had been debunked.

On her AM Update show on X on Monday, she claimed “a newly released audio recording further inflaming controversy over Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas James Talarico’s extended absence from the campaign trail, as an Ohio mental health facility seems to confirm Talarico was there, right before they deny it,” before trying to piece together a timeline for the disproven incident.

Talarico, who was at the Austin City Limits festival on Friday and at a concert in Dallas on Saturday, has now also dismissed the speculation.

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“I’ve never even been to Ohio,” Talarico told MS NOW. He added that it was “the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

In a conversation with the Times, he said he had “a nasty case of the flu” and had been “home sick in bed.”

“This is a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory,” Talarico’s spokesperson JT Ennis said in a post on X. “Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas, recovering from the flu.

The ugly race between Paxton and Talarico is one of the key battlegrounds that could decide which party controls the Senate for the second half of Trump’s term.

Talarico is ahead in the polls in a race dripping with cash. If he wins, it would be the first time a Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas in 30 years.

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Harry ThompsonNews Reporter

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