EXCLUSIVE: Resurfaced video shows James Talarico discussing ‘exciting’ opportunity to end ‘over-policing’
· Fox News
EXCLUSIVE: A resurfaced video shows that following the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death, now-Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico said the country was facing a "really exciting" opportunity to "end the current situation of over-policing communities of color which has been in place in this country since its founding."
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Talarico, a Texas state lawmaker, is tied in recent polling with Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in the race to be the state's next U.S. senator. Such a flip would be the first in decades and would deal a major blow to the GOP's chances of retaining a Senate majority. Despite a history of controversial statements, including calling God nonbinary and claiming there are six genders, Talarico has recently positioned himself as a moderate, pro-police candidate.
However, critics are calling his pro-police stance into question after they say the resurfaced video destroys that narrative.
Zach Kraft, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, ripped Talarico as a "dangerous freak who is willing to endanger the entire state just to prove that he is sufficiently woke."
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Kraft alleged that "James Talarico's wacked out vision for Texas with no police, no prisons, and no borders would put families in danger and be a paradise for criminal illegal aliens."
Unearthed clips from a September 2020 Zoom with South Asian American Voter Empowerment (SAAVETX) show Talarico saying that policymakers need to "listen to black voices and to the activists in the streets calling for a radically different vision of public safety."
He ripped Republicans who he accused of wanting to "scare white people to win an election," saying that "is a time-honored tradition in the Republican Party."
Talarico asserted that "police violence against communities of color, in particular our black community is nothing new, and has its roots in slavery and Jim Crow and mass incarceration."
He added that "this is just the latest iteration of the history of oppression this country has been a part of against African Americans."
Meanwhile, he said he would like to gather people "from activists and advocates to community leaders to law enforcement officials themselves to have a genuine discussion about what true public safety policy looks like and how we can end the current situation of over-policing communities of color which has been in place in this country since its founding."
He added that the discussion should be about "how do we take our criminal justice system at the state level, at the national level, and how do we make some fundamental changes to reflect our highest ideals and to really embody the country and state and the community that we want in the race to be."
"That’s taking place," he continued, adding that communities are "figuring out how we reinvest our limited public funding into these community-based solutions that really start to address the underlying causes of our criminal justice system attempts to treat."
"That to me is really exciting," he said.
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Talarico proceeded to say, "I applaud our local leaders that are trying to do that." He cited the city of Austin, which had recently approved a budget that cut tens of millions of dollars from the Austin Police Department. He ripped Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for having "proposed removing some of the revenue streams from cities like Austin because they’ve made local decisions for their local community."
At the time, Abbott released a statement saying that "Austin's decision puts the brave men and women of the Austin Police Department and their families at greater risk, and paves the way for lawlessness." The governor promised financial penalties for any Texas city defunding its police force, saying, "Public safety is job one, and Austin has abandoned that duty."
During the Zoom call, however, Talarico asserted that for Abbott to "complain about local communities not funding public safety is hypocritical."
"To see the governor continue to try to undermine our local governments, I think is rich to say the least," he said.
In response to the new criticism, JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico’s campaign, told Fox News Digital that "James opposes defunding the police, has voted to deny bail for violent criminals, and has a record of sending billions of dollars to support law enforcement."
Additionally, Ennis said that Talarico "supports a secure southern border and has unveiled a border security agenda backed by law enforcement officials from both parties."
Meanwhile, he accused Paxton of having "abused his office to benefit his wealthy donors and the well-connected, allowing criminals back on the street even as it made Texans less safe," adding, "Even Ken Paxton’s fellow Republicans have blasted his public safety record: more murders, soft on human trafficking, and pedophiles walking free."
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Ennis has previously called the assertion that Talarico is pro-defund the police a "flat out lie."
He said that previous legislation proposed by Talarico "supports the police by adding desperately needed mental health officials to help prevent tragic events like the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas."
Madison Cercy, a spokesperson for Paxton's campaign, said that "James Talarico has the most consistently anti-law enforcement record in the Texas Legislature. But now his spokesman is out telling bold-faced lies."
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"For his campaign to even insinuate that Talarico has, at any point in his career, 'stood with law enforcement' is one of the most egregious lies they have told throughout this campaign," Cercy told Fox News Digital.
She said that Talarico "donated thousands of dollars to an organization that supported defunding the police and voted against banning personal bond release for people accused of violent crimes," while emphasizing that "just because he votes on a basic spending bill like every other state representative does not mean he has ever 'supported law enforcement.'"
"If it were up to Talarico," she continued, "We would hand over our communities to the radicals who pillaged our streets during the 2020 defund the police movement and let criminals out of prison in pursuit of a socialist agenda."
Fox News Digital reached out to SAAVETX for comment.