Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico walked into a CNN town hall Wednesday night thinking he could out-Bible a Catholic voter on abortion. It did not go well for ‘Talafreako’ as Trump puts it. The ‘freak show’ continued when a random person made him look like a dunce, which was pretty easy to be honest.
Talarico, who is both a Christian seminarian and a state lawmaker, told a self-described “one-issue voter” named Jody Hunt that his pro-choice position is perfectly compatible with her faith because, in his words, “the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion.” Hunt listened politely, let him finish his point about “certain policy levers” reducing abortions without banning them, and then proceeded to fact-check him in front of the whole crowd.
“I just want to add that the Bible is not silent on abortion. There is the 10 Commandments: ‘Thou shall not kill,'” Hunt shot back. She also noted that Catholics take “great insult” when their faith is described the way Talarico described it. A seminary student just got corrected on Scripture by a voter at a cable news forum. Breathtaking stuff.
Hunt wasn’t done either. She pushed back on Talarico’s calls for expanded contraception access and what he called “age-appropriate sex education,” calling those ideas “a very trying thing” for Catholics. James Talarico CNN town hall “We believe the parents are the primary educators of our children, and so, one of the things that we really struggle with is having any government interference with how we educate our children,” she said. She was gracious enough to find common ground on caring for life “from the womb to the tomb,” which was a classier exit than Talarico deserved after that opening move.
Talarico held his ground anyway, insisting he doesn’t personally view terminating a pregnancy as a violation of the Ten Commandments. “If I believed that abortion was murder, that it violated the 10 Commandments, then I wouldn’t support it,” he said. He also claimed Texas’s abortion ban has led to “women dying in emergency room parking lots” and argued that anyone “authentically pro-life” should be disturbed by what he called an “extreme abortion ban.” A seminarian who doesn’t think abortion violates “thou shalt not kill” is a genuinely impressive theological position.
The exchange happened during a stretch of the forum where voters sat directly across from Talarico and debated him face to face. He also fielded questions on voter ID laws, the national debt, and transgender procedures for minors during the hour-and-a-half event. CNN’s Erin Burnett noted that Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton declined his invitation to attend, which means Paxton missed a front-row seat to watch a Democrat get theology-checked by a Catholic mom.
Talarico currently holds a 2.6 percentage point polling edge over Paxton in the RealClearPolitics average. Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in Texas since 1988, so Talarico has a long road ahead, and apparently a lot more Bible study to do before he gets there. Hopefully, he drops out or loses and never runs for office again. America doesn’t need anyone like this in a position of power or decision making.
Watch the video:
Tala-Freako gets fact-checked by a voter during a CNN town hall.
It doesn't get any more pathetic than this.
Not only that, but if you ever looked up groomer in the dictionary, you'd probably see his photo.
Dude is a total creep.
Just my opinion, of course. pic.twitter.com/0eaE3a9gJ2
— Frank (@drastic215x) October 15, 2026
