Republicans have indicated they intend to portray Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico as a "freak," but he pushed back strongly against his GOP rival in Texas, Ken Paxton.The Donald Trump-endorsed Texas attorney general Paxton slurred the state legislator as "Tala-freako" in his victory speech after beating Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in a closely watched GOP runoff election.Talarico leveled an attack of his own after Paxton and other Republicans smeared him in thinly veiled homophobic language."If Ken Paxton is worried about freaks, he should stop giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles," Talarico told CBS News. This is the guy who just released Adam Hoffman from jail, an admitted child rapist, after one of Ken Paxton's wealthy lawyer friends got involved in the case. Ken Paxton even kept him off the sex offender registry."Paxton’s office took over the case about three years ago after the locally elected district attorney recused himself, and Hoffman was released from jail this week after serving just under half of a 60-day sentence handed down as part of a plea agreement last month.The 49-year-old Hoffman, a former attorney in Waco, pleaded guilty to reduced charges of indecent assault and displaying harmful materials to a minor, both Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail, as part of an agreement offered by Paxton's office after his trial on first-degree sexual abuse of a young child charges ended in June 2025 in a mistrial.Hoffman had been facing life without parole until Paxton's office reduced the charges in exchange for his guilty pleas, despite a friend of the defendant's son testifying that Hoffman had sexually assaulted him repeatedly over a three-year period starting when the boy was in third grade. - YouTube www.youtube.com
