The most insightful comments on the disappearance of James Talerico, the Benjamin Bathurst of American politics, come from veteran Dem operative Dan Turrentine, on his shared podcast with Sean Spicer.
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Both Spicer and Turrentine agree that there was something odd about Talerico vanishing and nobody mentioning it for twelve days. Unlike anybody else with a national profile, he didn’t leave a hole when he fell in. (Spicer: “Trump didn’t get seen for two days, and they thought he was dead.”) Neither of them has a plausible answer.
But Turrentine hits the nail on the head in pointing out the complete black hole nature of the situation: all sorts of inquiries are slipping past the Talarico event horizon, but nothing at all is coming out.
“The silence from the DSCC, the silence from the campaign, the Texas Democratic party… you and I talk about AOC’s social media skills. When she has been down for the count with the flu, she has done some Instagram stories where she’s sniffling and on the couch with a blanket, and she’s ‘sorry I’m not going to be able to make this event, I’m sick, I’ll be back…’ You’re talking to the voters. Trump when he had COVID. He still tried to get out there and wave…”
That, playmates, is exactly how simple it is in the Age of Internet. You sit down in front of the camera, you say a few words, and it’s signed, sealed, and delivered. That’s the way you handle it in the 21st century, and everybody knows it. So it’s difficult to doubt that something truly catastrophic has occurred.
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(About halfway through, Sean Spicer reveals that he’s recovering from leg surgery: “I’m sitting here with a leg brace, a bag of ice, and antibiotics, and I can do this…” So why can’t Talerico?)
Dan Turrentine then cuts straight to the chase: “Talarico’s team watched this take off… You’re in a tight race. There’s 25 days to go. You would get out last night with something to offset… even if it’s a photograph of the guy. That makes me nervous that it’s Friday morning and there is still – other than one spokesperson saying, ‘hey folks, nothing to see here.’”
There it is. The campaign has hit the floor, the Dem’s Senate chances are going up in smoke, and the response is…. Silence. Absolute zero activity. Nobody, not DNC headquarters, the Texas party elite, or the campaign itself, is thinking or acting politically. And say what you will about the Democrats, that’s not like them at all. It strongly suggests that there’s something here that can’t be fixed by politics.
The Talarico campaign has intimated that their boy will be back “later in the week” and everything will be fine. Sean Spicer doesn’t buy it. Neither do I.
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