The Media Research Center first tried to pretend it wasn’t taken in by Stephen Colbert’s narrative on his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, then tried to dismiss it as a “stunt.” When Talarico won the Democratic primary for the Senate seat — which tells us that Colbert’s “stunt” must have worked — the MRC then lashed out at Talarico himself. Mark Finkelstein spent a March 4 post complaining that Talarico earned comparisons to Barack Obama:
On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough swooned over Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico after his primary victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Scarborough said that Talarico had “exploded onto the national stage, a lot like Barack Obama.” Scarborough unapologetically repeated the analogy: “Yes, I will say, a lot like Barack Obama.”
[…]But Talarico’s use of Scripture can lead in distinctly progressive directions. During a 2025 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Talarico even suggested that Jesus was pro-choice, telling Rogan that Mary’s interaction with the Angel Gabriel shows that “you cannot force someone to create.”
A look at Talarico’s campaign website suggests that the Obama analogy may be apt in another way. During his Senate years, independent groups frequently rated Barack Obama the most liberal member of the chamber. Judging by his platform, Talarico is cut from the same liberal cloth.
Finkelstein named none of the “independent groups” who considered Obama to be the “most liberal” congressman. Instead, he huffed: “In short, beneath the Bible verses and rhetoric about hope lies a platform that would be music to liberal Democratic ears. Expect the eventual Republican candidate to spend millions bringing it to the attention of voters.”
The same day, Curtis Houck groused:
On Wednesday, ABC and CBS were nauseatingly in awe on their flagship newscasts of far-left Texas State Representative James Talarico — who believes, among other things, God was non-binary and that Mary would support abortion — as possessing “cross-partisan appeal”in a campaign “emphasizing unity” to pull in “moderates” to deliver Texas the first statewide Democrat win since 1994.
CBS sent senior White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe to Austin, Texas, who reported back on CBS Mornings that Talarico had “put off his seminary studies in order to launch this campaign, believing he can combine support from Democrats, independents in this state and Republicans upset with the President.”
[…]Over on the leftist ABC, Good Morning America saw virulent Trump hater Rachel Scott gush that Talarico has been “emphasizing unity, really trying to appeal to moderates” and has served as proof “Republicans know they do have a fight on their hands” to hold onto a Senate seat.
[…]But on NBC Nightly News, anchor Tom Llamas touted the “new momentum for Texas Democrats” before giving way to Capitol Hill correspondent Melanie Zanona, who harped on the Republicans needing a runoff to settle on a nominee and celebrating Talarico for having “leaned on his Christian faith and pointed to his electability, highlighting the record-breaking voter turnout in the state.”
Clay Waters used a March 9 post to complain that there are versions of Christianity other than the righht-wing version he prefers:
Monday’s New York Times brought more “strange new respect” for Christianity in a 1,600-word story pumping up James Talarico, yet another Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, where the Democrats haven’t won a stateside office since 1994.
Lisa Lerer, national political reporter, and Elisabeth Dias, national religion correspondent, brought a religious angle, and the paper, typically hostile to mixing faith (at least Christian faith) in politics, is on board with Talarico and his warped version of Christianity.
Waters then got mad this non-right-wing version of Christianity was brought up in reference to Talarico:
After misleading about Talarico’s aborted appearance on Stephen Colbert’s late-night “comedy” show (CBS did not block his appearance under F.C.C. pressure), the article continued taking Talarico’s claims of deep faith at face value, not even hinting at potential religious hypocrisy, as the Times surely would with a Christian Right politician: “Mr. Talarico’s faith has been a core motivator of his life since childhood….”
The paper treated the politician as a prophet without honor in his own country.
Later that day, Houck peddled the right-wing narrative that Talarico is an immature extremist:
Hours after an Oliver Darcy underling screeched Sunday about CBS News’s social media platforms as having gone full MAGA for covering unsavory stories such as a Jewish Insider investigation into the radical social media history of New York City’s first lady, Monday’s CBS Morningsshowed the liberal media are unsurprisingly not living in reality as the newscast welcomed far-left Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico (D) for an embarrassingly soft interview.
In just over six minutes, the co-hosts never offered an adversarial question to Talarico or strayed from the network’s own role in arguably endorsing Talarico’s primary campaign or any mention of the litany of radical statements over the course of his young life[.] […]
Duthiers was ebullient with Talarico sitting next to him, boasting Talarico “defeated Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in a race that captured national attention” and now “looking forward to a general election where he will face the winner of a Republican runoff between incumbent Senator John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.”
[…]Talarico went on for 78 seconds with boilerplate progressive, faux-Christian jargon about his campaign revolving around “lov[ing] my neighbor as myself, not just my neighbor who looks like me or prays like me or votes like me” and ensuring everyone has quality schools, a safe home, and stable job because Texans possess “deep hunger for a different kind of politics, not one that’s rooted in fear or hate or division, but one that’s rooted in love,” not a “blood sport.”
The panel was mesmerized by this love-without-justice, one-sided God that’s malleable to our biological delusions.
Interesting that Houck is being extremely judgmental against Talarico but has been silent about admitted adulterer Paxton.