A former Trump campaign staffer’s claim that Senate nominee James Talarico (D-TX) was in an Ohio psychiatric hospital unraveled as audio surfaced of the MAGA operative contradicting his own denials about conservative outlets declining the story over legal concerns.
Rhein Amacher, who says he worked on President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, placed the calls to the hospital, the Texas outlet Current Revolt reported Sunday.
Current Revolt later reported that Amacher had said during an X Space, a live audio chat, that news outlets passed on the story over legal concerns. Amacher adamantly denied the account Sunday night, and Current Revolt answered with a recording of his remarks.
Talarico had been off the campaign trail for nine days with what his campaign called the flu, Rolling Stone reported.
“The ‘flu’ thing was a BIG FAT LIE,” right-wing influencer Nick Sortor wrote on X Sunday.
Sortor first posted a 47-second clip of a call to the Lindner Center of Hope, a psychiatric hospital in Mason, Ohio, saying an employee confirmed Talarico had been a patient, according to Current Revolt.
Sortor told the outlet he did not place the call himself. Amacher admitted later that he posed as a cousin named “Tim.” He said he gave a made-up patient code, “2244.”
Current Revolt obtained the full call, which ran nearly seven minutes. Sortor’s clip came from its final seconds, Rolling Stone reported.
“I do not find anyone with that name for the last four days that’s been discharged and they’re not here in the building,” the staffer told Amacher.
“Looks like he was just discharged this evening,” the staffer said 10 seconds later.
Amacher said “this evening” meant Saturday, Oct. 10, according to Current Revolt. Talarico met voters at the Austin City Limits festival on Oct. 9 and attended a concert in Dallas the next night, Rolling Stone reported.
“Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope,” the hospital said on X Sunday evening.
“This is a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory. Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas recovering from the flu,” Talarico campaign spokesperson JT Ennis fired back on X.
“I’ve never even been to Ohio,” Talarico posted.
Earlier Sunday evening, Amacher had discussed the story on an X Space hosted by Tom Slocum Jr., a former Republican candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas, Current Revolt said.
“Never said this,” Amacher insited late Sunday in reply to Current Revolt’s account.
“Actually you did you absolute lying hack,” Current Revolt’s Tony Ortiz shot back moments later, posting audio from the X Space.
Slocum, a staunch Republican who opposes Talarico, expressed doubt about the hospital phone call during his interview with Amacher onj Sunday.
“Did that not give you pause, or any cause for concern, when all these outlets are telling you that ‘we have to go run this through our legal,’ but the influencers are not telling you that?” Slocum asked.
“Well, I mean, that’s normal. The influencers are not held to the same journalistic standards as people like yourself in the news industry. We’re not held to that same standard,” Amacher replied.
“But even like Sara Gonzales … her legal team just said, ‘Hey. Hold off,’” he added, referring to the Blaze TV host.
Media reporter Justin Baragona confirmed on X that Slocum “admitted that the Daily Mail and The Blaze passed on his story because they needed to get it cleared legally, so he instead relied on a MAGA influencer to tweet it out.”
