Democrat Strategist Nervous Over Talarico’s Flu Story

3 min read

Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D-50th District) disappeared from the campaign trail for nearly two weeks during the most critical stretch of the Texas Senate race, and his campaign’s explanation that he had the flu still doesn’t add up. Despite the Democratic Party’s efforts to dismiss lingering questions as right-wing conspiracy theories, some of the loudest skeptics come from the left.

Timeline Raises Eyebrows

The timeline alone raised eyebrows. Talarico’s last public campaign appearance in Texas came on Sept. 26, followed by a private fundraiser in New York City two days later. On Sept. 30, he appeared virtually at an event he was supposed to attend in person and announced he’d been diagnosed with the flu at a Dallas urgent care. Then he went dark while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton barnstormed the state.

Former Strategist Expresses Concerns

Mark Penn, who served as an adviser to Bill Clinton, weighed in during an appearance on Fox News. ‘Oh, this is super odd. There’s no question about that,’ Penn said. ‘These are the final days of a hundred million campaign, a major effort, one of the most key Senate races, and your candidate disappears for 12, 13 days with no clear word, no messages, no ability to kind of send out some messages, has the flu? This doesn’t, this really doesn’t make sense.’

Former Democrat strategist Dan Turrentine blasted the campaign’s handling of the situation. ‘My first reaction on Sunday afternoon was that if the allegations of receiving mental help were true, the Talarico campaign would be insane to think they could hide it and deny it. Almost nothing in this day-and-age can be hidden in a major campaign,’ Turrentine wrote on his Substack. ‘But on the other hand, I was dumbfounded at, and very worried about, the lack of aggressive pushback from the candidate, his campaign, and outside Democrats.’

Concern Over Lack of Proof

Turrentine went further in a conversation with Sean Spicer on The Huddle. ‘It has made me nervous still today that they have not put stuff, like, I would put my primary care physician before camera,’ Turrentine said. ‘Yeah, he had 103-degree fever, dehydration, and we were afraid he could pass out. Whatever. I would put the urgent care, like, receipt. Like, you probably paid for something out of pocket on your debit card, your credit card. Like, I would flood the zone to say, ‘You clowns, here is 8 million pieces.’ And the fact that they haven’t today still makes me a little nervous,’ he said.

‘Talarico has been very blunt. The campaign’s been blunt. If you’re lying, it is over, and you could cost us the United States Senate,’ Turrentine continued. ‘So, I’m praying to God that everybody is being honest and true, and the Right is out of control.’

Privacy vs. Campaign Rules

Spicer acknowledged that individuals have a right to medical privacy but argued that candidates play by different rules. ‘But you’re running for office. Obama put out his birth certificate,’ Spicer said. ‘He could literally take a screenshot of the urgent care and say, ‘You numbnuts, look at this.”

Turrentine had another suggestion. ‘Put your cell phone records out. Like, that’s how the New York tax authorities find out where you were,’ he said.

Source: PJ Media

Written by

Connor Davis