In what took only a few seconds and thus proving how easy it should be to do their supposed jobs as journalists, Tuesday’s CBS Mornings became the first flagship morning or evening broadcast network newscast — meaning ABC, CBS, and NBC — to mention Texas Democrat senatorial candidate James Talarico’s radical views on gender and religion in a larger piece about Tuesday’s Texas Republican primary runoff between Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
White House and election correspondent Ed O’Keefe’s story focused on the influence of President Trump’s decision to endorse Paxton “has Republicans concerned” and “may need to spend tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars defending a reliably red Senate seat.”
In reality, a more accurate description would be base voters and influencers are energized by the endorsement. But the back end provided an unspoken reality check to his fellow liberals about their chances in the Lone Star State.
After a soundbite of Talarico saying in March that Democrats are “about to take back Texas,” O’Keefe said “Democrats are rallying around James Talarico, a state representative in seminarian who they believe is their best shot in decades.”
This clip from Tuesday’s ‘CBS Mornings’ with @EdOKeefe covering the #TXSen runoff is the first time anyone has aired on a lead broadcast network morning or evening show (ABC, CBS, NBC) clips of Texas Democrat James Talarico saying there are “six” genders and “God is non-binary” pic.twitter.com/l0DAuIAjRQ
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 26, 2026
O’Keefe said “Talarico has gained grassroots support and has focused on fighting billionaires, [and] power,” but a win isn’t a done deal because “Republicans point to past statements like this.”
Sure enough, O’Keefe aired back-to-back two of Talarico’s greatest hits.
The first was this from April 20, 2021 about there being six genders: “Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.”
O’Keefe and none of the co-hosts — Gayle King, Nate Burleson, and Vladimir Duthiers — weighed in on that. Over on CNN, no one seemed willing to do that Monday for our friend Scott Jennings.
Talarico uttered the other on October 15, 2021: “God is non-binary.”
See, liberal journalists? That wasn’t too hard, was it?
In fact, CBS Mornings had a gushy Talarico interview back on March 9 and O’Keefe boasted of his electoral prospects back on March 4. In both cases, they ignored these radical views.
Surely, voters in the state that Pew has placed in the top 15 for “belief in God,” “frequency of prayer,” “importance of religion,” and “religious attendance” will take kindly once ads between May and November play those clips on repeate.
O’Keefe had one more statement implying Democrats should pump the brakes: “Polls showed that, in a general election, Democrat Talarico was running ahead of or even with either Republican opponent, a good spot to be in right now, but it’s only May. And Democrats have seen their hopes dashed in this state several times before.”
To see the relevant CBS transcript from May 26, click here.
