'Rabbit trail': Texas GOP lawmaker struggles to answer Ten Commandments questions
In recent months, the GOP has thrown everything it can at James Talarico, the Texas senatorial candidate who just won the Democratic primary and Republicans worry is a strong contender for the election in November. On Tuesday, the X account for Senate Republicans tried to turn his words back on him, but it didn’t go quite the way whoever handles the profile expected.
Along with a video of Talarico speaking before a Texas church congregation, the tweet quoted him saying, “Christ is the immigrant deported without due process. Christ is the senior deprived of their Social Security benefits. Christ is the protestor kidnapped in an unmarked vehicle by plain clothes officers.” At the head of the quote, the poster included a red flashing light emoji, signifying that there was something alarming about his words.
However, Talarico—a Presbyterian seminarian and former school teacher—retweeted the post along with a simple response: “I approve this message.”
This isn’t the first or most visible time Republicans have had their attempts to stymie Talarico’s campaign backfire.
In February, after CBS lawyers prevented Stephen Colbert from televising a segment with the Texas Democrat due to pressure from Trump’s FCC chief Brendan Carr, the interview was posted to YouTube where it garnered more than 9 million views, with many commenters noting they only watched because of the controversy. Within 24 hours of the video going live, Talarico’s campaign raked in over $2.5 million in donations—its highest single fundraising day yet.
“I think Donald Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas,” Talarico’s campaign asserted in a statement. “This is the party that ran against cancel culture. Now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, and what we read. This is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top. A threat to one of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights.”
Now with the primary behind him and the general election approaching fast, it seems increasingly apparent that these GOP attacks are failing.
“I just wish these Republicans weren’t so stupid,” said Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, speaking about Talarico’s campaign. “The very person they were trying to defeat, the very person whose message scared them, is the very person who they helped win this race. It just keeps happening over and over.”