Sanctimonious TX Preacher Dem Berating Billionaires on One Hand While Other Hand Is Out – HotAir

There have been a ton of crazy, hypocritical visuals and sound bites coming out of the Texas House Democrats’ gerrymander drama.

First, the fabulous private chartered flight for freedom and defending democracy to various Democratically controlled and gerrymandered-to-death blue states like Illinois and New York, with the accompanying resistance podium speeches from democracy advocates like J.B. Pritzker and the inane Kathy Hochul.





Between the fines, the pending legal action from the governor, the negative publicity, and the dawning realization that the futile escape from their legislative duties was backfiring, the refugee group came slinking back to Austin, but were still determined to raise what little Cain they could to keep those public profiles up.

To see the people’s business finished without further interruption, certain restrictions were placed on the movements of the recalcitrant resisters to ensure their attendance, which irritated them to no end. 

How dare the speaker treat them like children‘?!’ they railed as they acted like children.

And held clandestine conference calls from the ladies’ room, only to get busted anyway.

The redrawn redistricting map passed, and predictably, democracy is on the edge yet again.





Texas pushes our democracy closer to the brink

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH

In some cases, though, this little juvenile cross-state stunt has raised the profiles of some of the more obscure legislators, and none more so than the innocuous-looking fellow named James Talarico, a fourth-term rep from the Austin area.

The clean-cut, fresh-faced, Opie-looking Talarico is every bit the opposite of the current crop of progressive, flame-throwing Dems, or so they’d have you believe.

Back in June, Politico was in raptures over the ‘devout’ Christian, who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe swinging gospel verses in defense of his, well, progressive views.

Trans, Check. Abortion. Check. Illegals. Check.

They were so impressed – and probably so relieved – that liberal the rag annointed Talarico as, schmaybe, ‘the next big thing in Texas politics.’

I mean, literally, it was, like, ‘praise Jesus Dems found this guy – he’s almost normal.’

The representative and aspiring preacher hadn’t planned to deliver a sermon when he went to work at the state capitol that morning.

Sitting in a drab committee room last month, Texas Rep. James Talarico, among the youngest members of the statehouse now at 34, was slowly getting fed up as he sat through a hearing for a bill that would mandate putting the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state. A week prior, he’d sat through a committee hearing on a bill that would allow chaplains to replace guidance counselors. He was already dreading another floor debate scheduled for later in the day for a bill denying gender-affirming health care. So by the time the Ten Commandments came up that morning, Talarico had had it.

He looked squarely at the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Candy Noble, whom he acknowledged as a fellow “devout Christian,” before letting loose a two-minute and nine-second exchange that would go viral on TikTok and Twitter, racking up more than 1 million views on Twitter alone.

“This bill to me is not only unconstitutional, it’s not only un-American, I think it is also deeply un-Christian,” he told her, as she stood motionless. “And I say that because I believe this bill is idolatrous. I believe it is exclusionary. And I believe that it is arrogant, and those three things, in my reading of the Gospel, are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus.” He cited Matthew 6:5, in which Jesus urges his disciples to not pray publicly like the hypocrites.





Come on, already – Joe Rogan loved him.

Then came the great gerrymander getaway, and you couldn’t get away from Talarico.

They even had him preaching in a church on the South Side of Chicago, for goodness’s sake.

All of this attention has Talarico’s competitive juices flowing, and he’s looking at a Senate run now.

One of Rep Talarico’s favorite targets is billionaires and their undue influence on campaigns and life in general. In fact, while on Rogan’s show, he lambasted Republicans about the wretched billionaires in their midst.





…”Basically every single Republican state senator in Texas has taken their money. Every single one. A majority of the Republicans in the State House have taken their money,” he told Rogan, referring to oil-based billionaires in the state. “They increasingly run this whole government here in Texas.”

Remember the bible verse quoting Talarico’s preaching gig while on the lam from his elected official job? It turns out, it was pretty appropriate, as the South Side of Chicago, if I remember correctly, was Leroy Brown’s side of town, and he was a bad, bad boy.

As it turns out, the sanctimonious hypocrite (that’s a sin, too, right) Talarico isn’t quite as unspoiled as his dewy face appears. He’s a bad boy.

He’s been loudly and emphatically pointing accusing fingers of shame and opprobrium at billionaires and ‘mega-donor’ cash with one hand, while it appears that his other hand has been covered in some of that very same filthy lucre, and that’s okay.

Texas State Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat known for railing against billionaire influence in politics, is facing accusations of hypocrisy after Politico revealed he accepted $59,000 from a PAC backed by megadonor Miriam Adelson.

Texas Sands PAC, the Texas-based political arm of the casino giant, has more than $9 million in cash on hand heading into the upcoming election season. That money comes almost entirely from Miriam Adelson, the billionaire owner of Las Vegas Sands and majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

In 2023, Talarico voted for a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Texans to vote on government-monopoly casino legalization.

The $59,000 contribution was the largest he received last year.

Talarico’s office defended the donation, claiming he’s long supported casino legalization “because it will bring good jobs and additional tax revenue” to the state.

Meanwhile, in an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience last month, Talarico declared that billionaires “increasingly run this whole government.”





YOU CAN’T EXPECT ME NOT TO HAVE MONEY WHEN EVERYONE ELSE DOES

Nuh-uh.

…A representative for Talarico’s office defended his accepting the funds, telling Politico that while he opposes big-donor cash influencing elections, “he will not unilaterally disarm and let Texas Republicans play by different rules.

And the holier-than-thou preacher man opposed to sinning and grinning votes for legalized gambling NOT because the gambling mogul is the single largest contributor to his PAC, but because of the ‘good jobs and tax revenue.’ And as a preacher (?!), he was for legalized gambling before the money came in from the gambling billionaire, a source he says despises? 

I’m not sure if that isn’t even more damning.

…The year prior to receiving the funds from the Texas Sands PAC, he voted in support of legislation aimed at legalizing casino gambling in Texas through a proposed constitutional amendment put to voters.

Adelson, who has sunk millions into Texas Sands PAC, has pushed for Texas to legalize casino gambling. The group has given heavily to both Democrats and Republicans in the state.

Esparza said Talarico has backed the legalization of casino gambling “his entire career” because it “will bring good jobs and additional tax revenue” to the state.

Twenty years ago, he would have only looked at Playboy for the articles, which is why he would have had every issue. Excellent writing.

Are you kidding me? Even the hacks at Politico, who swooned over the saintly Opie’s cherubic mien not two months ago, are eating him alive in their headline today.





Unsurprisingly, Politico is catching it for exposing this pretender to the progressives who are so desperately looking for a near-normal, rational life raft to cling to.

Will Cain had Talarico’s number after he interviewed him.

And now Politico concurs.

I guess the hunt continues.


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