The burden isn’t on us, it’s on Talarico. It is owed entirely to disappearing for 12 days, thereby opening up the question of, “where the hell is this guy in the thick of a race he’s supposedly leading?” Now here we are, in another one of these “you don’t have 100% proof” arguments. Of course Talarico won’t admit it (at least not yet), and the clinic will now reiterate its policy of neither confirm nor deny anything, including admissions and discharges. So for some, nothing short of a Talarico admission or the clinic acknowledging it (which can’t happen on their own volition), will validate what broke today. Essentially, those people give more weight to the 12-day “flu related” absence than they do the recording and the massive legal liability Sortor has in putting it out if it were BS. It takes way more faith and trust to believe a candidate would be out 12 days for a flu and not something extremely concerning than it does to listen to the recordings and piece together the timeline. On Oct 8, the arguments ramped up about his absence. Like magic, Talarico shows up on the afternoon of Oct 9, after 12 days of being MIA. Almost like someone said “you better get back.” Then the flights. There is precedent for that clinic being used by another Texas Dem, it is ideologically compatible with their worldviews, and clearly either someone in that clinic or someone gossiping in Texas let it slip, because it reached several people on X with a lot of specificity. Sure, I suppose it’s just a whole lot of coincidence. No one will make the 100% confirmation (yet) - but buying the flu explanation for a candidate who thinks he’s about to pull off something legendary is far less insane than believing the clinic slipped up and explained the absence themselves.

The left spent two days calling everyone crackpots. Now it will be crickets. Voters deserve to know why Talarico covered up his trip to a psych clinic with the flu excuse. Who knew being up “six points” in the polls could be so stressful?