Gaslighting may be too soft a word for this exchange here. This ranks more in the micturating on our heads and calling it precipitation category of politician behavior.
In last night's town hall event on CNN, James Talarico took questions from a small group of Texans in order to clarify his ever-shifting positions. One question from a veteran on voter ID transformed Talarico's shifting positions to shifting comprehension when Talarico pretended to not know the bill at hand in the U.S. Senate.
CNN analyst and my Salem colleague Scott Jennings immediately called shenanigans on this dodge:
Talarico is so full of sh—. Feigning ignorance tonight on the Save America Act to the veteran who asked him. He literally trashed it in August but claimed tonight he’d never heard of it. See below
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 15, 2026
ZURITA: I served in Iraq and Afghanistan. My question for you today is about the Save America Act, because I think it's really important to -- to be honest with quite a few of us here. So my question is, do you support the Save America Act? And if not, what parts and why?
TALARICO: Well, I'd honestly have to read the details of the legislation. I -- I'm a policy wonk, and so I always hesitate to -- to say I'm going to support any one bill if I haven't read the final version of that bill.
ZURITA: Yes, sir.
TALARICO: But I -- from what I understand, the bill is about our elections. Is that right?
ZURITA: Yes, sir.
This is utter nonsense. Talarico has publicly excoriated the SAVE America Act as an attack on black voters for months. Twitter users quickly dug up this example, where Talarico asserts that he has full understanding of the bill and its impact:
JAMES TALARICO: "With the SAVE Act, they are trying to rob our neighbors, strictly our black neighbors, of those God given rights." https://t.co/mfAK1EJTfl
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 17, 2026
Talarico flat-out lied last night in pretending a lack of familiarity with the bill. Talarico seems to have few scruples about lying when it comes to voter-ID laws, in fact, since the issue of voter-ID requirements actually gets massive support from the same black voters for whom Talarico is white-knighting. The latest Harvard-Harris CAPS poll shows just how broad the consensus is for voter-ID requirements:
Harvard-Harris CAPS has not yet released the crosstabs on this question, but it's very clear that any issue in which 73% of Democrats support likely has broad backing from black voters as well. The consensus for proof of citizenship at registration is nearly as broad, with two-thirds of Democrats in support of that part of the SAVE America Act as well.
Talarico then tries to gaslight on the nature of IDs, in the response not captured in the above video:
TALARICO: So I'll tell you what I am for. I am for fair voter ID, and I say fair because here in Texas, I think that a lot of our voter ID policies are discriminatory. And here's -- here's what I mean by that. Some kinds of ID are allowed and other valid forms of ID aren't allowed. So, for instance, when you go to vote here in Texas, you can bring your concealed carry license, which I'm all for, but a student at a public college or university can't bring their student ID. And so I think that hurts some kind of voters and helps other kind of voters.
What I want to see is voter ID that is consistent across the board, because I think you and I probably both agree we want everyone, if they are eligible, if they are citizens, to be able to vote. And we don't want to discriminate against any one group of people. We don't -- I don't want to discriminate against Republicans who are voting. And I don't want to discriminate against Democrats who are voting. And so that's all I'm asking for. As long as voter ID is fair, then I'm all for it.
This too is utter nonsense. The difference between state-issued IDs and college IDs is that the state issues the ID based on confirmation of identity. Colleges may or may not exercise that same level of scrutiny, which is why TSA doesn't allow travelers to board airplanes without government-issued IDs. Texas transitioned to Real ID for its driver's licenses and state IDs years ago, and black voters have had no more difficulty than anyone else in complying with those regulations. (Real ID is now required for TSA, too.)
Voter ID does not discriminate against anyone except ineligible voters. Talarico can pretend all he wants to be ignorant of these issues, but he's on record opposing laws that would apply a standard so fair that 80% of Americans support it and have consistently requested it for years. Talarico and his fellow progressives want voting accessible to illegal aliens and other categories of ineligible voters, and they are insulting the intelligence of legitimate female and minority voters as an excuse to push back against voter ID.
Talarico just spent the last two weeks gaslighting Texans about the flu. Hopefully, voters in the Lone Star State will see the pattern emerging.
