On Monday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) questioned efforts by Texas Democrat U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico to moderate his liberal image in his campaign ads, including using football and his faith to appear more palatable to Texans.

“[Y]ou know, I think that’s the kind of stuff that Texas voters see in James Talarico,” Gill said. “You know, whenever they watch commercials like James Talarico trying to play into the Friday night lights feel, I think that’s what Texas voters dislike the most, because they realize that this is a guy who will take, and has taken, your most cherished traditions, your most cherished beliefs, your love for Friday night football, small town traditions, your faith, and wears them like a skin suit and then promotes policies that undermine everything that you know and love. And promotes things that will fundamentally, and in a very tangible way, make your life worse, whether it’s flooding American communities with illegal aliens or supporting a party who wants to give welfare to illegal aliens, or promoting ideas about how the Bible is pro-abortion or God is non-binary. I mean, these are bizarre things.”

“I think most Texans see what James Talarico, how he’s trying to portray himself and what he actually believes, and realizes these are two very different Talaricos and they’re very off-put by it,” he added.

Ingraham replied, “Well, look, you can be a football fan and never have played football. That’s most people, right? Say, he wasn’t on the football team in high school. You know, again, most people aren’t, but he was a prominent team player, Congressman, on the debate team. So, he and Ted Cruz have that in common, which is also pretty cool. But, I mean, let’s face it, the left, if they could, they would ban football. I’m sorry, they hate football. Most of the people on the left don’t like football. At least they don’t like what football also brings along with it. Patriotism, you know, a lot of faith, a lot of prayer before games. I think the prayer before games puts people over the edge on the left. They hate that stuff.”

Gill said, “Of course, they do. You know, if James Talarico went to a football game, he’d have to first apologize for his masculinity and the masculinity of everybody in the football stadium, and then he’d turn around and apologize for his whiteness, in his own words, as he’s done in the past. But you’re exactly right. Once that game starts, or right before it starts, and there’s a prayer, I think James Talarico would find that very, very repellent as well. This is somebody who takes scripture and contorts it, and does it in a way that I think is offensive to almost every Bible-believing Christian, whether it’s his views on turning federal buildings into abortion clinics, or God being non-binary, or there being six different sexes, whatever those are. This is somebody who rejects the Christian worldview.”

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