When Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D-50th District) needed someone to vouch for his whereabouts during two weeks of hiding, The New York Times rushed to the rescue with evidence nobody is allowed to see.
As we’ve previously reported, Talarico resurfaced a couple of days ago, claiming he'd been laid up with the flu. Then on Sunday, audio emerged that sources claim to show that he was briefly a patient at a mental health facility in Ohio. In the recording, released by Nick Sortor and Rhein Amacher, a woman who identifies herself as an employee of the Lindner Center of Hope says Talarico had recently been discharged. Screenshots of Amacher's phone confirm that he did, in fact, call the Lindner Center.
The Talarico campaign and the Lindner Center have fervently denied the claims, and Talarico insists that he spent the whole time at home recovering from the flu. Now the Times says it has seen proof, and it described that proof in its report on the controversy.
The New York Times reviewed time-stamped images from a security camera at Mr. Talarico’s home, which were provided by his campaign on the condition they not be published for security reasons. The images showed Mr. Talarico around the exterior of the home and at its entrances between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8.
From there, the paper does blatant PR work for the Talarico campaign, accusing critics of embracing a conspiracy theory without any evidence. But we did get evidence. There's an audio recording and call screenshots. As of now, though plenty of people are accusing them of it, there's zero proof that the Sortor/Amacher material was fabricated.
The truly absurd part is that the Times expects us to trust it and buy its excuse for not showing the evidence it claims to have seen. Security concerns? Please. The campaign or the paper could easily blur out anything that might reveal an exact location or is otherwise a potential security problem.
Related: Even Democrats Say Talarico’s Flu Story Just Doesn’t Add Up
Think of it this way: if Fox News declared they had footage of Talarico at the Lindner Center but couldn’t release it because of security reasons, would anyone on the left believe it?
We haven’t gotten proof. We’ve gotten a “we’ve seen it, trust us,” and yet another desperate effort to declare the issue closed.
The paper's account also runs into some inconvenient reporting from the ground. GOP strategist Caroline Wren posted on Friday about a conversation she had with journalists staking out the home last week.
Just spoke to a news outlet that’s been camped outside Talarico’s house the past week and said there’s been ZERO MOVEMENT. Not a single person has gone in or out. If Talarico’s home sick wouldn’t his girlfriend at least be going in and out bringing soup??? WTLF IS GOING ON?!
— Caroline Wren (@CarolineWren) October 9, 2026
And then there’s the paper’s record. It would be an understatement to say that the New York Times has a huge credibility problem. In 2018, journalists from the Times and The Washington Post shared a Pulitzer Prize in national reporting for blatantly biased coverage of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to steal the 2016 election.
Of course, as we all know, that entire story was a complete hoax, but The New York Times reported it like it was true. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and the Senate Intelligence Committee disproved it. Yet to this day, some (if not most) liberals still believe it. Frankly, there's more evidence suggesting Talarico checked into the Lindner Center than there ever was for the collusion fairy tale.
But get this, that wasn’t even the first time the paper won journalism's top honor for bogus coverage. Back in 2021, Hans A. von Spakovsky recounted an earlier episode from the Times' history.
In 1931, The New York Times published 13 articles by its Moscow reporter and Communist sympathizer, Walter Duranty, praising the Soviet Union and dictator Joseph Stalin’s government. These articles relied solely on official Soviet communist sources, ignored the evidence contradicting the government’s propaganda, and covered up the genocide Stalin was committing in the Ukraine.
So does the New York Times have a credibility issue? You bet it does.
Even some on the Left find the campaign's silence strange. Former Democrat strategist Dan Turrentine admitted his unease on The Huddle podcast this week.
"It has made me nervous still today that they have not put stuff, like, I would put my primary care physician before camera," Turrentine said. "'Yeah, he had a 103-degree fever, dehydration, and we were afraid he could pass out.' Whatever. I would put the urgent care, like, receipt. Like, you probably paid for something out of pocket on your debit card, your credit card. Like, I would flood the zone to say, ‘You clowns, here is 8 million pieces.’ And the fact that they haven't today still makes me a little nervous."
He's right. If the Talarico campaign wants to put an end to the rumors, it could show us the evidence. If it had evidence, it would show it. So far, all anyone is telling us is to take their word for it.
Sorry, can’t do it.
