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Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
Meet the Man Who Could Flip Texas — with Rep. James Talarico (Live from SXSW)
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Jess
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Scott
be with back market.
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Jess
Ooh.
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Interviewer
Your cabana's ready.
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James Talarico
Would you like fresh towels?
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James Talarico
RJ Decker, the private investigator uncovering the Sunshine State's darkest secrets.
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Interviewer
RJ freaking Decker.
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James Talarico
As I live and breathe, he's a private eye. It's not a standard murder. Something bigger and a public mass trying to get some back to prison. Today. You go to prison one time and suddenly it's all the jokes.
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TV Show Promoter
RJ Decker Series premiere Tuesdays on ABC
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James Talarico
and stream on hul.
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Jess
Hey everyone, it's Jesse. So this past weekend with south by Southwest and Austin, Scott and I were there schmoozing with the celebs. Well, mostly Scott. He's very, very popular and I'm only like mid level popular, but we were promoting the show all over the place. Good news, people love us. Even better news, there's still room to grow. So that's good. And on Saturday we had this great conversation with James Talarico. As you probably know, Talarico is the Texas state representative who just beat Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary for the US Senate. He's a Christian seminarian, a former middle school teacher and a really exciting new young voice in the Democratic party who we had on the podcast last summer. In July, same day that his pod with Rogan dropped by the way, Scott and I chatted with him on his home turf and we talked about what he should do to defend himself against the attacks from right wing media that are going to come his way. Talked about the primary and also what would be his governance style if we were talking to Senator Talarico. The event was livestream on our new substack Profg plus. If you want access to exclusive live streams like this one as well as ad free episodes, go to profgeemedia.com and sign up now. Scott and I will be Back covering the news on Tuesday. But for now, please enjoy our conversation with James Tallarico and make sure to leave comments. We do see them and we have been responding more, but we will keep doing that. We love hearing from you guys.
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Interviewer
Thank you.
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James Talarico
Thank you all so much.
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Scott
Yeah.
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James Talarico
Excited to be here.
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Scott
We're so thrilled. I have never sent more text messages in my life to one person than trying to get you to come do south by Southwest with us. So thank you for finally saying yes.
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James Talarico
Well, I'm honored. Thank you all.
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Scott
Yeah, she just won a huge primary. And as we were traveling.
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James Talarico
Thank you. Thank you.
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Scott
And I want to talk about the intricacies of the primary. But first, yesterday, Scott and I were traveling down here and we're talking about the show and how do we want to start? What should the first question be? And then Kara Swisher, host, pivot, obviously, with Scott, texts us and is like,
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Jess
did you see this?
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Scott
Did you see this?
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Jess
And.
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Scott
And Donald Trump was talking about you on FOX News Radio with Brian Kilameade. Let's play the audio.
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IKEA Advertiser
Right?
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Donald Trump Audio
Is it going to be Cornyn or
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James Talarico
is it going to be Pax? And what do you think?
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Donald Trump Audio
Let me tell you the good news. The good news is their candidate is whacked out with his six different forms of gender. And all the things that I saw, the insult to Jesus, I mean, such an insult, this guy, binary. And it's very interesting. They had no fear of her because she's a low IQ individual, but they really waited. The Republicans waited. They really wanted to run against. Against him because they had these things and nobody knew they had them. And all this bad stuff came out about him. He is so woke. He's beyond woke. He's. He's actually, I think he's grossly incompetent.
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Scott
Beyond woke. What did you think when you heard it?
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James Talarico
Well, Donald Trump sounds like he's worried we're about to flip Texas. And. I think it's important to talk about why all these attacks are coming. There is another war in the Middle East. There is a cost of living crisis that is crushing the middle class in this country. There is a secret pedophile ring and no one has been prosecuted. And so the people responsible for all that are now trying to distract us with the same old tired culture wars. I mean, Trump's own press secretary couldn't rule out a military draft for their new war in Iran. So I think the question is, what do the American people care more about culture wars or actual wars? Do they care more about pronouns or prices I think the reason these attacks are coming is they are afraid of the movement that we're building in Texas. Working people coming together across all these divisions to take on this broken, corrupt political system. And this is what the people in power always do. They divide working people by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture. So we don't notice that they are picking our pockets, that they're closing our public schools, which is happening all over the state of Texas. They're gutting our healthcare. We've seen premiums skyrocket for working families in this state, and they are cutting taxes for themselves while they raise taxes on all of us. So this is literally the oldest strategy in the world. Divide and conquer. And I think people in this state and in this country, I think we're done being divided. I think we're done being pitted against each other. We're done being played. And they know that's the movement we're building in Texas. And so they're going to throw everything they've got at us. They're going to dig up all kinds of old statements, take them out of context and try to paint them in the worst possible light, because this is the only playbook they have in 2026.
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Scott
So we're going to get to some of those statements because I have to account for them at work when asked. But I just wanted to talk about the primary specifically a little bit more. Watching it from New York City play out. And the whole kind of Acela corridor was just unbelievably wowed by what your team did with. I think it was like 28,000 grassroots volunteers. I mean, the numbers that kept getting pumping out of how many social impressions, you know, how many hands you were shaking, and the coalition itself that you put together and you activated, especially young voters, certainly around Austin, the UT line was, you know, for miles and miles, but also Latino voters really came back to the Democratic Party in the primary for you. Can you talk about the primary just a little bit?
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James Talarico
Yeah. I mean, we launched this campaign six months ago in my hometown of Round Rock, Texas, which is just north of here, and shout out to Round Rock. And since then, we have had tens of thousands of Texans showing up to rally with us in every corner of the state, from Beaumont to. To El Paso, from Amarillo to Brownsville and everywhere in between. And I can't tell you how many people come up to me at the end of these events and they. They whisper, I'm not a Democrat. Like, it's like they're in the witness protection program. And, and we have, we have recruited, I think now it's over 30,000 volunteers who are doing the organizing work in every community across the state. We've also shattered grassroots fundraising records, all without taking a dime from corporate PACs. So this is a, this is a, a people powered movement to, to not. It's not a movement against any one politician or any one political party. It's a movement against this broken system. And we are trying, and I think succeeding in building a campaign of, by, and for the people. And it's why so many people in Washington are nervous about what we're building here. We shocked people on election night in this primary. I think we're going to shock people again in November.
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Interviewer
All right, So I want to fast forward to the possibility that you've won the election, you maybe get an appointment to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and you're reminded that 42 of the last 42 years, the state Department, under vastly different administrations, has said that Iran is the number one state sponsored terror in the region and globally. And we're responsible or should have some input for countering that threat. Can you speak specifically to how you think the US should counter that threat? Is it economic? Is it military action? Do you think any use of military force was warranted here? So, in sum, Iran. Question mark. Your turn.
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James Talarico
Yeah. You know, as a millennial, I have seen how military disasters like the Iraq War robbed this nation of young lives of billions of dollars and of our moral standing across the globe. And I worry that our current leaders are making those same mistakes in Iran. I was, I was in San Branch, Texas, a few weeks ago. It's a community south of Dallas that doesn't have any running water. It doesn't have basic sewer infrastructure. So every dollar that we are spending bombing people in the Middle east is a dollar that we are not spending in our communities back home. And we're always told there's not enough money for schools, there's not enough money for health care, there's not enough money for housing or veterans. But there always seems to be enough money to bomb people on the other
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Interviewer
side of the world.
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James Talarico
And there are. Right now, our government is spending a billion dollars a day, a billion dollars a day bombing people in Iran, including innocent school children. We have just seen more of our brave men and women in uniform dying in this conflict. I know the President said this was going to be short term pain. You tell that to the parents of those fallen soldiers. That's not short term pain. That is a lifetime of pain. And for what we can Support the democracy movement in Iran, we can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Both should absolutely be priorities of our foreign policy, but it should be done through our partnerships with allies. It should be done using our economic strength through our intelligence community. But this kind of military intervention, without much forethought, without much explanation to me just reminds me of the forever wars that it feels like the President promised we were going to move past and now we're right back in another forever war in the Middle East. So I think we should try to achieve those goals through non military means. I think that was succeeding. And I think we're going to see all of those issues get much worse because of this reckless intervention in Iran.
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Interviewer
So. Along the notions you mentioned a billion dollars a day, not being able to, every dollar spent overseas is a dollar less we can spend domestically, which makes sense. We're spending $7 trillion as a government. We're taking in 5 trillion. If you can do math, that's just not sustainable. We spend 1.1 trillion on the military. So it sounds as if, and you tell me if you agree with this, that potentially a place to cut might be the military. But given that we have a lot of young people in the audience who tend to be asked to whip out the credit card to sustain the wealth of my generation, can you give some specifics around one, do you think a $2 trillion annual deficit is a problem? And would you be more focused on cutting expenditures or raising receipts and try and be as specific as possible what you would cut and where you would increase revenues?
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James Talarico
Yeah, and I do think it's a problem. I think this is intergenerational theft and we are saddling my generation. We're saddling Gen Zers, we're saddling future generations with this debt. The choice that we're often presented with is cutting spending or raising revenue. I would propose a solution that's somewhere in the middle of those two things, which is currently we are giving away so many taxpayer dollars to the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. We gave $3 trillion to the wealthiest Americans to the top 1% in the Trump tax cuts just this past summer. And so if we have $3 trillion to give to rich people who don't need it, then we have $3 trillion to start paying down this national debt. I would also, if you, if you look through our tax code, there are so many giveaways, so many loopholes for the biggest corporations in this country who don't pay a penny in federal taxes. In fact, the CEOs of these companies can literally write off flying on a private jet. And so to me, having a fairer tax code, holding tax cheats accountable, the estimates are that this could bring in billions, close to $200 billion in every fiscal year. And so to me, it's not any new taxes, and it's not cutting the programs that help working people. It's going after the tax cheats. It's closing the loopholes that benefit the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations.
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Interviewer
So just more specifically, and I'll throw back to Jess, alternative minimum tax, more progressive tax structure, elimination of carried interest.
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James Talarico
Absolutely. On having a more progressive tax system. Because when you have the secretaries of billionaires paying more as a percentage of their income than the billionaires themselves, then that's a problem. And.
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Interviewer
Yep.
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James Talarico
So I would say that. And then I would also add a higher corporate tax rate I've proposed. And I encourage anyone who's listening or watching to go to our policy page on our website. I'm very proud to say we have the most detailed policy page of any Senate candidate in the country. And on there, I talk about propose, I talk about introducing a new special corporate tax for any company that's paying their CEOs 250 times more than they're paying their average employee. So, so discouraging that kind of. Discouraging that kind of hoarding in the workplace, that kind of hoarding in our economy so that we can grow and thrive together like we did in the 20th century when we had the largest middle class in the world and our economy was the envy of every other country.
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Interviewer
60% corporate tax rates. So, but just on that point, you could tax billionaires 100%. You could have an alternative minimum tax. Corporations, huge difference. But it's not going to close a $2 trillion gap. Going to the expense side, are there areas where you think we could cut.
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James Talarico
I'm all for efficiency in government, and I worked on that in the state legislature. You know, I think what was so frustrating for me watching what happened with DOGE at the beginning of last year, is that it wasn't a serious attempt to try to find efficiencies in our government. It wasn't a serious attempt at reform. Those are things we actually need. But instead, they decided to go after budget dust like usaid, a program that doesn't cost us that much, but literally saves the lives of so many children across the world and helps us cultivate our alliances that build soft power. And so to go after that kind of program rather than looking at the largest expenditures in our budget, to me, suggested that it was more about politics than it was about reform and efficiency.
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Interviewer
So just one or two programs that you would cut or where you think you could find. Where you think you could find savings.
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James Talarico
I mean, you talked about our military spending, you've talked about entitlements. Those are the two biggest parts of our budget.
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Interviewer
Thank you.
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James Talarico
Okay. And I absolutely think if you're going to look at efficiency, if you're going to look at reform, then you should focus on the biggest line items. Not going after kids in Africa who desperately need enough HIV positive mothers in Africa.
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Interviewer
Yeah, sorry, Joe.
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James Talarico
Exactly.
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Scott
Yeah. I want to talk to you since we're on the policy front about health care and you spoke a lot about it on the trail through the primary and just as a representative. So we fought to get the ACA subsidy extension.
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Jess
Didn't work.
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Scott
Didn't have the numbers for it. Millions of Texans are going to be thrown off their health insurance premiums going up 400%. But Obamacare also isn't perfect. And I feel like, or we feel we've talked about it a lot, that Democrats don't talk about that enough, that we don't need to just preserve the status quo. We have to improve the status quo for Americans. So what do you think are some smart fixes to our healthcare system that can increase coverage and make it more affordable for the average Texan and then the average American once you get to Washington?
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James Talarico
Yeah. Well, this is personal for me. I was 28 years old when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was actually in my very first campaign for the State House. I was a Democrat running in a Trump district that no one thought was winnable. And so I decided to do something a little crazy. I decided to walk the entire length of my district all in one day, all on foot, all in the Texas heat. And. And I held three town halls along the walk. It was a 25 mile walk. And I wasn't worried about my ability to do the walk. I hiked Big Bend every year and I was perfectly healthy. I was 28. And halfway through the walk, I started to feel fatigued and nauseous. I threw up a couple times along the walk. Somehow I finished the thing. And when I went home, I figured I was just dehydrated and I needed a good night's sleep. I went to bed and I slept for 36 hours straight. And so my family got concerned. They took me to the ER where nurses checked my blood sugar. I don't even know if I'd ever had my blood sugar tested. Before, and they told me a normal blood sugar is 100 or lower and mine was 900. So I was in a state of diabetic ketoacidosis, which leads to coma and death without insulin. And I was in the ICU for three days. When I got out, I went to Walgreens to pick up my first 30 day supply of insulin, this new medicine that I now needed to live. And it cost me $684 for a 30 day supply. And I didn't have that kind of money. Still don't have that kind of money. And so I put it on a credit card. And many Texans with diabetes face the same kind of cost pressure. Some of them ration, some of them skip doses entirely, and some of them die because of that. And so when I won that race and I got elected the state house, I was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together to take on Big Pharma. Because the reason insulin costs so much is because Big Pharma has a chokehold on our healthcare system in this country. It's basically three companies that, that own the entire global insulin market and they move their prices together. They, it's a, it's a monopoly and they jack up prices to maximize their profits. And so we came together in the statehouse, we beat Big Pharma and their lobbyists by capping the cost of insulin at $25 per prescription in the state of Texas. And that is, I think, the kind of action that people want to see on all these issues, but particularly healthcare, because it's so personal. And so not only should we cap the cost of more life saving drugs, not only should we reverse the cuts made to the aca, which impacts Texas more than any other state, because we have refused to expand Medicaid here in Texas. So a lot of folks rely on these subsidies and on these exchanges. But I think we should go one step further and we should allow every single Texan, every single American, regardless of their age, the chance to join Medicare. And I think if we did that, not only could we provide universal coverage, we could also provide competition in this marketplace and drive down the cost of private insurance as well. And if we can do that, if we can provide that opportunity to join Medicare while still honoring people's free choice and their ability to choose their health care and their health insurance coverage. I think it is a solution that could transform our broken health care system in this state, in this country.
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Scott
I always like a good public private partnership opportunity. And I think free choice is going to be important, especially when you're campaigning in a state like Texas.
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James Talarico
Important in Texas.
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Scott
Yeah. I want to talk like pie in the sky. What's a signature James Tallarico policy? Like, what is your dream piece of legislation that you could maybe get through the Senate, hopefully in a bipartisan way?
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James Talarico
That's a tricky question for a policy wonk, but I have done a ton of work at the state level on bringing down costs. I just mentioned the cost of insulin. Right after I got that bill passed, I passed a Bernie Sanders idea through the Texas legislature, which is not an easy thing to do. It was a bill to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada where they pay half what Americans pay for the same medications. And I introduced the bill because I was trying to mostly make a point. I didn't think it was actually going to go anywhere. But then a friend of mine on the other side of the aisle, actually a member of the Freedom Caucus, so a very far right Republican, he called me up and he's like, I just read your bill and I think it's great. And I think it will really provide a disruption to the monopoly Big Pharma has because he believes in free markets. And so that wasn't necessarily the reason I filed the bill. I filed the bill because I think people shouldn't die because they can't afford their health care. But whatever his reasons, we both supported the same policy. So we got it passed to the House, we got it passed to the Senate, we got signed by the governor. Now Texas is working on its application to the FDA to start importing these cheaper medications wholesale right here at home. And, and I've done that work on other issues. Childcare, which is, if you're asking what a dream policy would look like for me at the federal level, it would probably be universal, high quality early childhood education for every single kid in this country. I, as a, and you one as an educator, I think it could be a game changer. Those first thousand days of a child's life, those first three years, that is when the architecture of the brain is being built and we as a society are really nowhere to be seen. And it's something crazy like a thousand neural connections are being formed every second in that period of a child's life. And I see it, I just became an uncle for the first time three years ago. My baby niece Jane is going to turn three in two weeks. And I just see, I see how she is absorbing everything around her, that everything is fascinating to her and that she's actually, she's able to pick up things so quickly because in that period, your brain is so much more flexible and malleable. And so I think having that high quality early child education available to every single kid would be a game changer and it would reduce costs because you can either pay for this stuff on the front end or the back end. And the cost for remediation in school, the cost for criminal justice, the cost for welfare programs, all of that, I think you could. And it's not just me who thinks that. All the studies that have been done on this show that the return on investment for early child education programs is off the chart. It's the best use of our money, it's the best bang for our buck. And it could transform our education system, it could transform our economic system, it could transform this country. The last one I'll mention, I know you asked for one, but the last one I mentioned is housing. I as a millennial, I think Gen Z in particular, a lot of us feel like homeownership is something completely out of reach. And owning your first home is such a critical part of the American dream. There's like a sequence to the dream and the home is right there at the beginning. Because if you don't, if you can't afford a home, it's hard to start a family, have kids, put down roots, build wealth. And so the fact that we have locked young people out of that American dream, I think it should be an urgent priority for all of us to start addressing housing in particular. And I've done it here in Texas. We passed a major bill to allow for something called single stair housing complexes. This is a kind of housing that's built in almost every other country around the world. But our outdated building code here in Texas doesn't allow for it. And these are things like condos, right? A very kind of an easier entry point into home ownership. And it was just a regulation that didn't make any sense anymore. Some people said it was for fire safety, but there are ways now that you can ensure fire safety while also building these complexes that only have one staircase. And so we just repealed that part of the code, Republicans and Democrats. It was my bill and we got it passed. And now Texas is going to start building those more affordable complexes. So I would focus laser like on affordability, not just groceries. Although repealing the Trump tax cuts has to be a top priority. So we can bring down the cost of food, but also the big structural costs in the economy. Housing, child care, prescription drugs and healthcare. I think that should be an urgent national priority if we're able to Build a Senate majority for 2027.
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Jess
All right,
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Scott
Mommy.
- [27:35]
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- [28:50]
Interviewer
So we spent a lot of time talking about the struggles of young men in America. And in the state of Texas, especially on almost every metric, things are even worse. One out of seven men in Texas is what's called a need, neither in employment, entrepreneurship or training. Four out of five suicides in Texas are men. 37% of American men have a bachelor's. It's only 31% in Texas. Young adult suicide has gone up 20% since COVID Nationally, it's gone up 41% in Texas. Do you feel that the struggles of young men warrant specific attentions and programs into what would Senator Talarico propose to help the young men in America and the young men in Texas?
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James Talarico
Yeah. Well, one. Thank you, Scott, for always being a voice on this issue. It's something that.
- [29:38]
Interviewer
Thank you.
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James Talarico
I feel like we need to talk about as a country. And there are very few people in the public's eye that's focused on this. So I want to thank you for that. Thank you. And I care a lot about this. As an educator, as a relatively young man myself, I start to feel older and older.
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Scott
I'm an even more elder millennial. So don't. You're young.
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James Talarico
The legislature has given me gray hair, so. But you know, I did some work with a program here in Central Texas Actually, a branch of a national nonprofit started by President Obama called My Brother's Keeper. And what we saw is that across demographic groups, young men were struggling in our schools, particularly in our. In our high schools, and they weren't graduating at the rates that they should be. And this was black, white, brown. It was young men of all colors really struggling academically. And so. And I actually partnered with a Republican colleague to try to get a commission set up in Texas where we could look at these issues that are affecting boys and young men and look at it comprehensively. Not just academics and not just economics, but also social factors. And I think we got to address the elephant in the room, which is big tech, because predatory algorithms are destroying an entire generation of young men in this country. I. These. These algorithms make young men feel lonely and insecure. And then those same algorithms tell them that the solution is domination. It's an endless accumulation. It's an endless hoarding of wealth and power, and that is a spiritual sickness. In my life, the best man that I know is my dad, the man who gave me his last name, the man who raised me as his own. Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad. And growing up, my dad, every Saturday would mow our lawn. And then, without anyone asking him, he would go next door and he would mow our neighbor's lawn because she was elderly, she was a widow. He never talked about it. He just did it. And I think that's what being a man is all about. It's taking responsibility. It's taking care of the people around you. It's doing what's right, even when no one is watching. The Internet tells these young men that being a man means tearing other people down. It means trolling and owning and dominating. So that's not what my dad taught me. I don't think that's what any father teaches his son. No father teaches their son to find the weakest person in the room and bully them. And so if any young men are listening to this podcast, I would say that we have a choice. Every Saturday morning, we can either troll people on the Internet, or we can go mow our neighbor's lawn. And I think that's the kind of. I just think that's the model of what a man was in my life. That's the model I got from my dad. And I think we all need to remember the example of our fathers in this current environment, this current discussion.
- [33:23]
Interviewer
That is such a powerful message. I get emotional just thinking about it. How does it. And I Think every father is going to hear that message and nod, but how as a senator does that translate to actual public policy as it relates to Big Tech? Is it removal of section 230? Is it removal of liability shield laws? Like yeah, we're so with you. How do you make it happen as an elected representative?
- [33:47]
James Talarico
And again, this is the work I did at the state level that I think we can build on at the federal level. I was the co author of the bill that banned smartphones in our public schools here in Texas. I was the co author of a bill that didn't end up passing, but it would have adopted Australia's policy banning algorithmic social media for people under 18. And I would be very interested in fighting for those kind of policies at the federal level. I'd also be really interested in how we go after Big Tech. And you mentioned liability. These tech companies were always able to hide behind the First Amendment. They were always able to say, well, we're just the town square. We're not promoting any speech. That is not true. In a world of algorithmic social media, these algorithms absolutely promote and elevate certain kinds of speech over others. And it's usually the most radicalizing content. It's the content that will get the most clicks. Exactly. And so I think they need to be held accountable for that content. And the biggest tell in my mind is that the billionaires who run these algorithms don't let their own kids use the product. And so why on earth would we subject our kids, the kids of America, to these predatory algorithms when the billionaires themselves don't even let their own kids on the platforms?
- [35:05]
Interviewer
Yes.
- [35:07]
Scott
So I'm getting in the spirit. I feel like we turn Texas blue, maybe even win the Senate. And last night, as admittedly I was doomed scrolling before bed, which is incredibly unhealthy, I saw not just young men. It is not. It is. I hate saying this like quasi middle aged women are doing it too. I saw that for the first time the betting markets are saying that the Democrats should take the Senate.
- [35:36]
James Talarico
So.
- [35:41]
Scott
What do you think about that and why do you think the moment is finally right for Texas to turn blue?
- [35:50]
James Talarico
Well one, you know, I'm a proud Texas Democrat, but I already have a religion and I already have a sports team. Hook em horns, since we're here in Austin, Texas. So I have no problem sharing hard truths with my own party. I have no problem disagreeing with the powers that be in my own party. I'm a Democrat because I feel like it's the best vehicle to unite working people so that we can improve the lives of ourselves, our families, and our communities. But if the Democratic Party's not doing that, I have no problem calling it out so that it can do a better job of that work. And honestly, in Texas, we have been suffering for 30 years under one party rule. And one party rule, no matter if it's the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, always leads to extremism, corruption, because there's not a check on that power. There's no competition. And so I think what we have the opportunity to do here is finally end that 30 years of one party rule in Texas. And if we do that, I think it's going to improve public policy for all of us. My party talks about turning Texas blue. Republicans talk about keeping Texas red. I think the best color for Texas is purple. I think she would look great in purple. Because in a purple state, every politician is on their toes. Right. Every election is up for grabs, and that means people get to hold their elected leaders accountable and get to push them toward policies that are actually gonna help our lives. And so that's what I think is at stake here. I really don't think this is a partisan battle. I think this is about good government and whether we're going to have competition in our elections and accountability for elected officials.
- [37:43]
Scott
I love it. I also look good in purple, so I'm excited for that. One of the major obstacles, at least in the next few months, and, you know, as primary plays out and Ken Paxton and John Cornyn are going to fight it out, and that's going to be messy, and I'm going to enjoy all of that, but you're gonna be taking a lot of incoming yourself. And we alluded to this at the beginning when we came out for past comments, past tweets, things that you've said. And since I work in conservative media, I'm, I guess, your defender now. So I want you to help me out, because these. This is what my incoming looks like because of you.
- [38:24]
James Talarico
So I'm so sorry.
- [38:26]
Scott
I still love you. But you and Gavin Newsom are complicating my life, to say the least. So we've got white skin, gives me and every white American immunity from the virus, but we spread it wherever we go, through our words, our actions, and our systems. We don't have to be showing symptoms like a white hood or a confederate flag to be contagious. Most of them from 2020.
- [38:49]
James Talarico
Yeah. And I think an important thing to recognize with all the attacks that are coming from MAGA toward our movement right now, all of them depend on taking these things out of context. All of them depend on cutting some of the quotes before they end or cutting them at the beginning to kind of paint them in the worst possible light. And so for that, in that case, it was a tweet that was part of a larger thread about how we all have a responsibility to combat racism. And so would I word it differently? Would I use a different metaphor? Maybe. But I still believe that racism is wrong, and I still believe that we all have a responsibility to combat it. And I think it's telling when some people are triggered by that. And so I, of course, looking back at some of these old statements from years ago, would maybe word them differently or communicate them differently. But the values that I hold are still the same.
- [39:45]
Scott
Love it. I got another one for you. I have several more.
- [39:48]
James Talarico
Yeah, yeah.
- [39:50]
Scott
And this relates to immigration, which is obviously a huge issue here in Texas. In another tweet, you used the phrase undocumented Americans. And then they're also going crazy about the giant welcome mat thing that you said, which was cut off. And I did mention that because it was about a porch. Right. And you said giant welcome mat, but also a lock on your front door.
- [40:12]
James Talarico
So this is a perfect example. So at every campaign stop, I say that our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door. And so what the Republicans started doing is they started posting that clip. They just cut it off before I said lock on the door. So it makes it. It makes it.
- [40:31]
Jess
So also, your mouth is still open.
- [40:33]
Scott
I'm like, he's still talking.
- [40:35]
James Talarico
I know, I know. And that's. But. But let's talk about why they're doing that. They are cutting the context because they want you to believe that you can't welcome hardworking immigrants and secure the board at the same time when you can absolutely do both. I'm an 8th generation Texan. My family's been here since it was Mexico. My mom is from Laredo, Texas, on our southern border. Shout out, Laredo.
- [41:03]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [41:06]
James Talarico
And I think Texans understand immigration better than most people around the country because we live with it every day, both the benefits and the challenges. And I think most Texans, most Americans are actually on the same page when it comes to immigration. They are pro immigrant. They know this is a nation of immigrants. They know immigrants contribute to our communities every day. They make us stronger and richer, as they always have throughout American history. You wouldn't be interviewing a guy with the last name Talarico. If this wasn't a nation of immigrants. But they're also pro public safety. They want an orderly process to know who's coming into this country. They want to keep out people who mean to do us harm. And if someone commits a violent crime, they want them deported immediately. And those are not mutually exclusive goals. We can and must do both. Both parties have failed us on this issue for the last three decades. The American people, the people of this state, are looking for leaders who are going to be pro immigrant and pro security. And the point in that metaphor is that's exactly what we all do at our own homes. Texans are hospitable. That's what we're known for. We're the friendly state. We welcome anybody in who needs help or who wants to live the American dream. But we also have a right to know who's coming into our home. We can be hospitable while still maintaining security. And so I think it's telling that the Republicans are cutting that that quote in half because they don't want us to know that we can do both.
- [42:36]
Scott
I got one more. Yeah, I have, like, eight more, but we're only going to do one more. And I love that you had some fun with this one. So the Republican Senatorial Committee has video of you saying, christ is the immigrant deported without due process. Christ is the senior deprived of their Social Security benefits. Christ is the protester kidnapped in an unmarked vehicle by plainclothes officers. And you just quote, retweeted and said, I approve this message.
- [43:05]
James Talarico
Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're accusing me of believing in progressive Christianity. I don't believe in a progressive Christianity. I believe in a biblical Christianity. I want everyone to go back and read whether you're a Christian or not, go back and read Matthew 25. Read the parable of the sheep and the goats. It's a fascinating story. At the end of the world, Jesus gathers all the people and all the nations. So it's us as individuals, but it's also us as communities, as societies. And the story says that Jesus is going to tell some of us depart from me because I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was sick and you didn't heal me. I was a stranger and you didn't welcome me. And then we're going to respond and say, christ, when did we see you hungry or sick or a stranger and not help you? And then he replies, what you do for the least of these is what you do for me. People are always finding Jesus in a piece of toast or a Stain on the wall. But we're not finding him where he told us we would find him. In the poor, in the sick, in the needy, in the bombed, in the starved, in the oppressed. And so I'm not preaching a progressive Christianity. I'm preaching a biblical Christianity.
- [44:59]
Interviewer
So as we wrap up here, you said something earlier in the session about when you were diagnosed with diabetes. So you're a young man, a young, healthy man, whole life ahead of you. That has to be a devastating diagnosis and piece of news and lacking the maturity to have a great deal of perspective. Can you put us in your shoes at that moment and tell us, one, what it felt like, and two, what gave you comfort as a means of advising other young people who receive what feels at the moment to be just devastating news?
- [45:35]
James Talarico
Yeah. Thank you for asking that. You know, I'm a pretty calm person. I get that from my dad. My dad is, like, unflappable. No matter what's happening around him, he's just steady. And he gave that gift to me, and I'm very thankful for it. When I was diagnosed, I just kind of took in the information. I had questions. I got those questions answered. And, you know, I was mostly concerned with my immediate health because, you know, my blood sugar was at a dangerous level. And so I was trying to figure out what needed to happen to be able to stabilize the situation. The second day I was in the icu. I remember I was talking with my diabetes educator. That's the person, like, the hospital provides you with to tell you about this new disease that you have that takes a lot of work. And I remember she was explaining things to me. My family had left the room. I think they went to, you know, get something to eat or get a change of clothes. And so just me and her in the hospital room. I was sitting in the hospital bed. I was still hooked up to the IVs. And I remember her telling me about how to inject the insulin and that I would need to do it multiple times a day, that I would have to do it every time I ate, every time my sugars were high. And I remember asking her in that moment. It seems so silly now, but I remember saying, how long am I going to have to do this? And she said, for the rest of your life. And, like, in that moment, I kind of lost it, and that's rare for me. And it was embarrassing because my family wasn't there. It was just this poor diabetes educator trying to console me. But it was just, I think the stress of the two days prior the weight of the news, all that had just kind of came crushing down on me. And hearing that this was going to be something I was going to live with forever was just, it was a big thing to hear, is a big thing to hear confirmed by this educator. I would also then say, and this is what I've told. I've had a lot of Texans with diabetes. A lot of type one kids who come up to me at these rallies actually signed an insulin pump, which I thought was weird, but. But, you know, a lot of them show me their pumps or they show me their numbers or their glucose monitor. You know, underneath my suit jacket, I have a monitor here that hooks up to my phone so I can see how my sugars are doing during the day. And when I have a chance to talk to them, I always remind them that this disease is also a blessing because it, for me at least, it is like a daily reminder that I am a finite organic being and that life in every minute is a gift. And I didn't, I don't think I, I knew that intellectually, but before I got this disease, I would always forget that. I would always think that I was invincible, that I was immortal. Because we're all told that we're going to die, but all of us just kind of deny it in our brains. But I'm reminded of it every day, almost every minute of every day, because it's anyone who has type one, anyone who knows someone with Type one, you know, it's just a constant struggle. If they're too high, you die. If they're too low, you die. And so as you're trying to keep your sugars in these, in this narrow band, and it's difficult and it's frustrating many times, especially when you have other things you're trying to accomplish. But it is such a reminder that this thing, it doesn't last forever. And it is a beautiful, precious, fragile gift that we receive and it's something that we should cherish. And I don't think I would understand that at the gut level if I hadn't been diagnosed with this illness.
- [49:17]
Interviewer
Please join Jess and me in thanking state representative and Democratic Senate candidate James Salarico.
- [49:24]
James Talarico
Thank you. It. Foreign.
- [49:57]
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Scott
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