A right-wing smear campaign against Texas Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico fell apart in mere hours on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, MAGA influencers Nick Sortor and Rhein Amacher posted a 45-second audio recording on social media that they claimed was of an employee at an Ohio mental health center stating that Talarico had been discharged from the facility on Saturday.

Right-wing social media accounts had spent days spreading rumors about Talarico undergoing mental health treatment after the Texas Democrat stepped away from the campaign trail for more than a week after coming down with the flu.

Problems with the influencers’ narrative quickly emerged, as the recording indicated that Talarico was discharged from the Ohio facility on Saturday, and by that point the Democratic Senate hopeful had already returned to the campaign trail, making a public appearance on Friday at the Austin City Limits festival.

On Sunday night, the official social media account of Lindner Center Hope, the facility where the Texas Democrat was purportedly staying, posted a statement that “James Talarico has never received treatment” there.

The Bulwark later obtained a recording of the entire six-minute phone call showing that the employee repeatedly denied having any record of anyone named James Talarico at the facility.

After minutes of being badgered by Amacher about Talarico’s presence, the employee indicated that he must have already been discharged, which is why she had no record of him.

Will Sommer, a reporter for The Bulwark who specializes in tracking far-right disinformation and conspiracy theories, noted in a Sunday social media post that some of the MAGA influencers have started taking down posts they wrote promoting the audio recording.

Talarico responded to the botched smear campaign on Sunday night by writing on his social media account, "I’ve never even been to Ohio.”

Talarico spokesman JT Ennis called the smear campaign “a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory.”

“Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas,” Ennis added, “recovering from the flu.”

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