A claim that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico had been secretly flown to Ohio and committed to a mental hospital spread on X over the weekend, amplified by the platform's owner Elon Musk, before the Lindner Center of Hope denied it, according to an analysis published by Mother Jones. The Lindner Center of Hope said in a statement on Sunday evening that Talarico had "never received treatment" at its facility, and Talarico said he had "never even been to Ohio."
Debunked Claim About Texas Senate Candidate Spread on X, Amplified by Musk
A claim that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico had been secretly flown to Ohio and committed to a mental hospital spread on X over the weekend, amplified by the platform's owner Elon Musk, before the Lindner Center of Hope denied it, according to an analysis published by Mother Jones. The Lindner Center of Hope said in a statement on Sunday evening that Talarico had "never received treatment" at its facility, and Talarico said he had "never even been to Ohio."
Talarico and his campaign had said he had the flu, and he appeared remotely at an event on September 30, citing his illness. On Sunday, MAGA influencers Nick Sortor and Rhein Amacher began hinting at bombshell news about where Talarico had been. Sortor gave Talarico a 1 PM deadline to "reveal" the truth before they would break it themselves. At the appointed time, Sortor and Amacher released a 55-second audio clip on X of a purported call between Amacher and the Lindner Center of Hope, a mental health treatment center in Mason, Ohio. In the call, an unidentified employee is asked about Talarico and appears to say there is no one by that name in the hospital's records, but then says Talarico had been released on Saturday night. The timeline did not add up, given that Talarico had been seen campaigning in Texas on Friday and Saturday. Amacher later tweeted that it "is not uncommon in the healthcare industry for a patient to be physically discharged from a facility before all administrative discharge documentation has been finalized."
Musk responded to Sortor's tweet breaking the news, tweeting, "The Talarico campaign is hiding something big that voters ought to know about." A few minutes later he responded to a tweet from presidential special envoy Richard Grenell that shared the story, adding that "The Talarico campaign is not being honest about what's happening." After the Lindner Center's denial, Musk began tweeting clips of Talarico speaking critically about capitalism, which Musk called "troubling." Mother Jones reported that no one involved, especially Musk, admitted they might have made a mistake.
On Monday, The New York Times reported that Musk has become the midterms' biggest donor, donating $276 million to what the paper termed a "rescue mission" to keep Republicans in office and in control of Congress. Musk's company SpaceX currently holds several federal contracts with the Defense Department, which could be probed if Democrats retake Congress. House Republicans have repeatedly blocked efforts to subpoena Musk amid an ongoing Democrat-led inquiry into his conduct while working as part of DOGE. With a Democratic majority, that subpoena could move ahead.
Under Musk, X cut its teams of internal moderators and engineers working on trust and safety. A group of academic researchers wrote in a 2024 paper that they found an increase in hate speech on the platform and no decrease in inauthentic activity, contrary to Musk's pledge to root out "spam bots" when taking it over. They wrote there was a "potential increase" in "the activity of inauthentic accounts." Recently, a network of X accounts tied to a Russian disinformation operation produced numerous fake videos and news articles, each offering false information about a Democrat, according to Mother Jones. The fake videos purporting to be from this new organization were not removed until Mother Jones' lawyer contacted X.
- The source does not state the identity of the unidentified employee at the Lindner Center of Hope who spoke on the audio clip.
- The source does not state whether Musk or his representatives responded to the Lindner Center's denial or the debunking of the claim.
- The source does not state whether X removed the false claim or the audio clip after the denial.
- The source does not state the date of the midterm elections, only that they are weeks away.
- The source does not state the outcome of the Democrat-led inquiry into Musk's conduct at DOGE or the status of the subpoena efforts.
Read the original at Mother Jones