Talarico put on defense after 2020 comments about defunding police resurface: ‘We must replace’

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico’s campaign is denying that he ever supported the “defund the police” movement after a video resurfaced showing the then-state lawmaker arguing at the height of the 2020 racial justice protests that it was “rich” for defunding police to be considered “off-limits” in political debate.

“James did not call for and does not support defunding the police, and he strongly supports Texas law enforcement and first responders,” Talarico campaign spokesperson JT Ennis told Fox News Digital, noting the comments were taken out of context by Talarico’s critics after the remarks resurfaced Monday.

Talarico made the remarks during a 2020 virtual discussion with Texas Rising, a progressive youth activist group, as protests and a national debate over policing swept the country following the death of George Floyd.

“As an educator, it’s always rich to me that ‘defund the police’ is considered off-limits in our political debate, when defunding health services, defunding public education has been the stated policy of our state government for decades now,” Talarico said.

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In a separate September 2020 interview with the local publication Honest Austin, Talarico echoed the same argument his campaign said was taken out of context when asked point-blank about the “defund the police” movement, according to CNN. “Our system of policing is deeply broken. We must replace it with something new and something better,” he said before questioning whether armed officers were needed for every emergency.

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During the Texas Rising discussion, Talarico acknowledged that the “defund the police” slogan was getting people “all riled up” in his community, but argued that voters were receptive when asked whether armed officers should respond to minor traffic accidents or mental-health crises.

Talarico’s campaign insisted to Fox News Digital that Talarico was not endorsing the “defund the police” movement in his 2020 remarks, but rather calling out what the campaign described as hypocrisy among politicians who condemn the slogan while supporting cuts to other public services. The campaign said Talarico’s position is that essential government services, including law enforcement, should be adequately funded.

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Ennis also pointed to Talarico’s legislative record, saying he has “voted to send billions of dollars to local law enforcement” while advocating for additional mental health resources so that police officers do not have to respond to emergencies that could instead be handled by counselors.

“That’s why James has voted to send billions of dollars to local law enforcement, in addition to advocating for better-funded mental health resources so that cops don’t have to respond to mental health emergencies that could be handled by a counselor,” Ennis said.

Meanwhile, Ennis accused Talarico’s Senate rival, GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and his allies of “lying about James’ comments” to distract from what he characterized as the Republican attorney general’s own record on crime, including a plea agreement involving a sex offender that the campaign has previously attacked as an “Epstein style sweetheart deal.”

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The campaign was referring to Paxton’s office’s handling of the case against former Waco attorney Adam Dean Hoffman, who was charged with sexual abuse of a minor. 

Hoffman’s 2025 trial ended in a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict, and the child victim did not want to testify at a second trial. Prosecutors from Paxton’s office subsequently negotiated a deal allowing Hoffman to plead guilty to misdemeanor indecent assault and displaying harmful material to a minor. Hoffman was sentenced to 60 days in jail, was released after 29 days and did not have to register as a sex offender, Fox News Digital previously reported.