Far-right media figures circulated a fake story about Texas Senate candidate James Talarico over the weekend, only to have the enterprise quickly blow up in their faces. Racist billionaire Elon Musk played a key role in promoting the smear.

Recently, Talarico, who is running against Republican nominee Ken Paxton, had an extended absence from the campaign trail due to a bout of flu.

On Sunday, MAGA media figure Nick Sortor falsely claimed that the flu story was “a BIG FAT LIE” and that “a hospital employee told @RheinAmacher and I that Talarico had in fact been a patient at the Lindner Center of Hope near Cincinnati, Ohio, which specializes in around-the-clock mental health treatment.” Sortor then said that Talarico’s supposed stint at the hospital meant the Democrat was “CLEARLY not suited to become a US Senator representing over 30 MILLION TEXANS.”

Sortor’s falsehoods were repeatedly promoted by Musk on X. In one post, Musk said the story was evidence “the Talarico campaign is hiding something big that voters ought to know about,” and that “the Talarico campaign is not being honest about what’s happening.”

The fabricated story was also promoted by longtime Trump ally Richard Grenell, who was recently part of Trump’s efforts to destroy the Kennedy Center.

But the whole thing was a fraud.

Talarico returned to the campaign trail on Friday and slammed the conspiracy theories about his absence in an interview with MS NOW.

“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s wild that someone can just post something on the internet and then the media just runs with it,” Talarico said, and went on to challenge Paxton to a debate, something the Republican has been avoiding.

Lindner Center of Hope added to the right’s humiliation, noting in a post on X, “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.” And Talarico responded, “I’ve never even been to Ohio 😂.”

The desperate smear emerged as polling shows a tight race in Texas, which has historically been a Republican stronghold. Paxton is a weak candidate propped up by millions in outside money, largely coming from Musk’s super PAC, America PAC.

Musk has put a lot of money on the line to try and ensure Republicans hold on to the seat, and the weekend’s activity shows that he is even willing to promote a hoax to accomplish his goal.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos