‘Silly Season’: James Talarico Takes on GOP Conspiracies About His No Flu

James Talarico, Texas’ Democratic Senate candidate, on Sunday dismissed GOP conspiracy theories about his flu-caused absence from the campaign trail and sought to turn the tables.

“I had the flu,” he said in an exclusive interview with MS NOW. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s crazy that someone can just post something on the internet and the media picks it up.”

He called the brouhaha “silly season in our politics” and launched a new challenge to his Republican rival, Ken Paxton, who spent the better part of 10 days stoking wild speculation about Talarico’s whereabouts while the Democrat recovered from his illness.

“He asked me for proof of life. I’m asking him for proof of spine,” Talarico told MS NOW, referring to his repeated invitations to Paxton to publicly debate him in an incredibly close race in deep-red Texas.

“I have heard credible reports that Ken Paxton is suffering from a serious health condition that is causing clinical cowardice,” Talarico joked in his first national television interview since returning to the campaign trail.

Paxton, the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general backed by President Donald Trump, and other Republicans had posted fake “missing” and “wanted” posters online, demanding “proof of life” from Talarico’s camp. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took action by displaying a milk carton depicting the face of a “missing” Talarico.

Asked why his campaign didn’t respond more forcefully to attacks on him in a high-stakes race so close to Election Day, Talarico pointed the finger at reporters and social media. “Sorry to disappoint our online conspiracy theorists, but our social media and traditional media system only rewards rumors and innuendo because that’s what gets clicks,” Talarico told MS NOW.

On September 30, Talarico said he went to a Dallas urgent care clinic. His last live appearance before falling ill was at a fundraiser in New York on September 28 with actor Robert De Niro.