Republicans’ Attempt at a Talarico Takedown Becomes Embarrassing Self Own

Paxton tried to push a conspiracy theory questioning Talarico’s mental fitness, but it ended up exposing his own deficiencies.

In the Texas senate race, Ken Paxton has trailed James Talarico in the polls for months, and nothing anyone does seems to be able to turn things around. At present, the New York Times/Siena poll has Talarico with a 6-point lead. Last month’s Republican “midterm convention” was an opportunity to showcase Paxton— and his approval ratings went down.

In a sign of desperation, Paxton and company went full Coyote and pulled an Acme brand conspiracy theory on Talarico, only for it to completely backfire. Talarico had been off the campaign trail for just over a week with the flu. But Paxton, with the help of two rightwing media personalities, tried pushing a particularly fantastical story: that Talarico had checked into an Ohio facility to deal with a mental health crisis.

Despite Talarico having never been to Ohio, and despite the alleged facility explicitly debunking the claim, and despite a New York Times examination of security footage proving that Talarico was indeed at his home in Texas during the time period in question, still Republicans ran with a lie so blatant, no one but the most lobotomized amongst us would believe it. Turns out that includes more people than I’d previously thought.

While the rightwing media spent most of Monday eating crow, the fact that this type of blatant disinformation soared across the internet is a testament to the media environment that Trump loyalists have created. Far from Twitter reining in this outright lie, Elon Musk himself amplified it. And that’s to say nothing of the gauzy coverage by CBS, the Washington Post, and I presume soon enough CNN.

It just so happened that in this particular instance, the Republican strategy is so disastrous that it’s actually working in Democrats’ favor— because after Paxton and his cronies perpetuated the Talarico conspiracy theory, Trump and Fox News doubled down on it and added their own flare: Talarico should show himself. And do it on a debate stage. If Talarico wants to prove he hasn’t had this made up mental crack up, he should debate Ken Paxton, they said.

And Talarico’s response was, well… yeah.

He’d love nothing more than to debate Ken Paxton; he’s been calling for it for months. Paxton is one of the most corrupt candidates in recorded history who has all the rhetorical prowess of a piece of toast, whereas Talarico is one of the most gifted public speakers on the trail today. James Talarico actually could be mid-mental health episode, and still cruise through a debate against Paxton.

Of course, this is the last thing Ken Paxton wants, because then he’d have to get on stage and defend a rap sheet of criminal behavior. Behavior like committing voter fraud by voting from an address he no longer lives at; getting impeached in the Texas House 121-23; having an affair with a senate aide, which tanked his marriage; having a different affair, then physically attacking strangers who caught him on camera while on vacation with that woman in the midst of the campaign. The list goes on. It would, admittedly, be a lot of information for Paxton to keep straight in the heat of a debate. Everyone would love to see him try.

Everyone, that is, except for Ken Paxton himself.