Trump Calls James Talarico A ‘Total Con Man’ Over Flu and Faith

President Donald Trump addressed this week’s conspiracy theories surrounding Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico’s (D-TX) illness-induced absence from the campaign trail.

During a press conference in the Rose Garden, President Trump said Republicans are growing more confident in the battle for control of Congress ahead of the midterms. Trump also called out several Democratic Senate nominees, including Talarico whom he dubbed a “con man.”

“The guy in Texas is a con man. Total con man,” Trump said. “Guy gets lost for 12, 14 days, he says that he’d got the flu.”

Before this week, Talarico had been absent from the campaign trail for nearly 13 days. He did not initially publicly explain the full extent of his illness, and opponent Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) even demanded “proof of life” from Talarico.

Talarico said this week that he had been suffering from a bad case of the flu. As a person with Type 1 diabetes, he said he was at greater risk of complications from the illness.

But Trump, Paxton and other Republicans continued to express skepticism about Talarico’s explanation for his absence.

“I’ve never heard of a flu that’s lasted that long,” Trump said. “Maybe he had a different kind of flu that we don’t know about.”

Trump also returned to controversial comments Talarico made in 2021 about God being “non-binary” and there being “six genders.”

During a CNN and Jubilee Town Hall, Talarico acknowledged that his remarks about God were “provocative,” explaining that he meant God could not be defined using human categories.

“He said bad things,” Trump said. “Talked badly about Jesus, talked badly about many things. Now he says, ‘Oh I was only kidding’ or something.”