Ken Paxton Pressed on Fox News About Whether He’ll Debate Talarico

Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton was pressed on Fox News over whether he will debate Democratic rival James Talarico after President Donald Trump publicly called for the two candidates to face off.

The question came after Trump injected himself into the increasingly heated Texas Senate race by declaring that Talarico should “immediately report to a Debate Stage against Paxton,” who Trump said was “ready, willing, and able.”

When asked by The Big Weekend co-host Johnny “Joey” Jones whether a debate was now in the works, Paxton said his campaign had been trying to make one happen for months.

“Well, now look, we’ve been looking on that for months with him and, of course, and we can never quite work out the details because he always wants something we can’t do,” Paxton said.

He then pivoted to Talarico’s recent absence from the campaign trail while recovering from the flu: “So, the reality is the big story is he was missing from the campaign trail, and I know he’d love to change the topic in debates, but the big story is two weeks is long time to be away with the flu and is just a very strange time to disappear.”

Once the Talarico campaign got wind of the clip, it immediately disputed Paxton’s account.

Campaign spokesperson JT Ennis posted the Fox clip on X and accused Paxton of “lying” about the negotiations and claimed that the Republican had “ignored every single attempt” to arrange a debate, “including a personal call to his cellphone.”

Talarico himself replied, writing on X: “Here are the details: literally any time, any place, any network.”

Some outlets covering the race reported that Talarico has been publicly seeking debates while Paxton has yet to agree to one. The Texas Tribune reported that Talarico had accepted at least four invitations, including a proposed Fox News debate moderated by Bret Baier that the network agreed to host.

The Washington Post likewise reported that Paxton had either declined debate invitations or failed to respond, while Talarico had already agreed to multiple forums.

Watch above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!