Yesterday I blogged that Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico had disappeared from the campaign trail for almost two weeks. And that the campaign’s “explanation” – that he was nursing a case of the flu for all this time – made no sense. I sked this: “Is there something more in play than the flu? I can’t prove it, but logic strongly suggests that there is.”
We may now have our answer.
Excerpted from Matt Margolis’ article at pjmedia.com:
Explosive rumors are circulating about the whereabouts of Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D-50th District), and if they prove true, his Senate campaign is over.
Sara Gonzales of The Blaze reported Thursday that she had received a tip she was still working to confirm.
Gonzales didn’t say what the information was, but GOP strategist Caroline Wren did, and what she’s hearing, though unconfirmed, is huge.
To recap, Talarico was last seen in Texas at a football game on Sept. 26. Invitations show New York City fundraisers with Robert De Niro on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29. Then, on Sept. 30, Talarico appeared by video at a Hispanic business event he was supposed to have attended in person, and said he had come down with the flu and visited a Dallas clinic. Wren concludes that account would put him in a Dallas medical clinic on the same night he was supposed to have been at a fundraiser in Manhattan.
Nobody has seen him in public since.
“I’m hearing that he checked himself into a mental institution, that he had a full-blown mental breakdown sometime around, I guess, September 29th or September 30th,” she said.
Now, to be clear, nobody has verified this. Wren said so herself, and she deserves credit for not dressing up a tip as a confirmed fact. “So, I heard this from someone in Texas,” she said. “I have no idea what the truth is.” She called on investigative reporters to chase it down, and that’s the right call. A claim like this about any candidate, Republican or Democrat, needs proof before anyone treats it as settled.
But the rumor has legs because the Talarico campaign is acting like it’s hiding something, and its public explanations don’t make sense. The official story is the flu. Twelve days of it.
Is this true? Did James Talarico have some kind of mental breakdown; one that would have made him unable to be seen in public for weeks?
As noted above, there is no proof, no verification of this. Just a vague “I’m hearing” comment from a Republican strategist, thus someone whose candidate would benefit from its being true.
That said, however, a breakdown of some kind makes far more sense than the claim that, absent any proof, he was put out of commission for two weeks by a bout with the flu.
My guess? One way or the other, we’re going to find out for sure in the next day or two. There is just no way something like this can be hidden.
And if the claim of a breakdown is true, then Matt Margolis is correct; this campaign is over.
Waiting……..
