Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico was recently off the campaign trail for nine days. He had the flu.
His opponent, Republican Ken Paxton, took advantage of Talarico’s absence and pushed a bizarre conspiracy narrative. He and his supporters on X claimed that Talarico had a breakdown and had checked into a mental health facility in Ohio.
Conveniently, the ridiculous story also got people to stop talking about Paxton’s unwillingness to participate in a debate.
Donald Trump stepped in to help the Texas Republican.
Then, things went terribly wrong.
