Talarico Shows Security Footage

James Talarico’s campaign shared security camera footage with CBS News that appears to show the Texas Democratic Senate candidate at his home in Texas for the first eight days of this month, pushing back on claims that he was hiding the reasons for his disappearance.

What some reports left out

NYT reviewed time-stamped home security camera images provided by the campaign

Reported by: The New York Times and CBS News

Not found in: New York Post, Mediaite, CNN, The Hill

The eight timestamped images, which include watermarks from home security camera company SimpliSafe, appeared to have been taken from a camera in the backyard of Talarico’s house in the state capital of Austin, and CBS News matched features in the backyard to recent satellite imagery of Talarico’s address.

SimpliSafe watermark1 of 4 outlets reported it · not in Dallas News and 2 more▾

Talarico’s campaign said the images show him at his home every day from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, one day before Talarico made a public appearance.

Dates claimed by campaign2 of 4 outlets reported it · not in Dallas News and 1 more▾

Talarico campaign spokesman J.T. Ennis said in a statement that claims Talarico was elsewhere were “a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory.”

Ennis added, “Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas recovering from the flu,” as the dispute over Talarico’s whereabouts continued in the Texas Senate race.

Flu Claim Meets Doubt

Talarico told the audience at the United States Hispanic Business Council that “I was starting to feel under the weather a few days ago,” and he said he went to urgent care in Dallas and was diagnosed with the flu.

Talarico returned to public events over the weekend, seen speaking to attendees at the Austin City Limits music festival on Friday and in the front row of a Kacey Musgraves concert in Dallas on Saturday.

Paxton and his allies zeroed in on the Democrat’s absence during the final stretch of a race that could be critical to determining control of the Senate, and it described a “Where is James Talarico” chant at a rally in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Talarico told MS NOW, “I had the flu. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” and he said it was “wild that someone can just post something on the internet and then the media just runs with it.”

CNN also reported that Talarico said he had been working from home as he recovered and meeting with his team via Zoom, while he dismissed the speculation as “silly season in our politics.”

Ohio Rumor Denied

The New York Times said a post on X claiming that Talarico had been at a mental health facility in Ohio, promoted by Republican allies of Ken Paxton, had been viewed millions of times before the Ohio facility publicly announced that Talarico had never been treated there.

Talarico writing, “I’ve never even been to Ohio,” returned him to the campaign trail on Friday.

The mental health facility at the center of the conspiracy theories, Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio, also wrote on social media that Talarico “has never received treatment” there.

Talarico campaign spokesman J.T. Ennis said in a statement that claims Talarico was elsewhere were “a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory,” as the dispute moved from his whereabouts to the Ohio treatment rumor.

The Hill reported that Paxton responded to Talarico’s Austin City Limits appearance by saying the opponent “doesn’t get to reappear like nothing happened after ghosting the 31 million Texans he wants to represent for two weeks.”