Catholic Voter Shut Down Talarico on CNN With the Bible Verse He Keeps Dodging

Franklin Graham branded a James Talarico claim about the Bible’s supposed silence on the unborn an absolute lie.

Talarico repeated that exact line at a CNN town hall in front of a Catholic voter who was done listening.

She stood up and recited one Bible verse that reduced his answer to silence.

Talarico Already Got Caught Making This Exact Claim Months Ago

James Talarico sat down with podcaster Jamie Kern Lima in May and told her, "Jesus never talks about abortion."

"The Bible is silent on abortion," he said, framing his support for unrestricted abortion access as an act of faith rather than a break from it.

Franklin Graham answered within a day, posting that the claim was "an absolute lie" and pointing straight to Exodus 20:13 – "You shall not murder."

Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins said Talarico was trying to hide behind Jesus to defend abortion, Wesley Biblical Seminary scholar Robert Gagnon called the reasoning "juvenile hermeneutics," and Glenn Beck told his audience Talarico was "a wolf in sheep's clothing."

None of it stopped him.

Talarico is now the Democratic nominee running against Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate seat Texas conservatives have held for decades, and a Fox News poll shows the race separated by a margin thin enough to keep Austin up at night.

So on Wednesday night, October 14, he stood on a CNN town hall stage in Texas and said it again.

The Verses Talarico Keeps Skipping Over

Jody Hunt did not let it slide.

The Catholic voter and theology professor cut him off and pointed straight to the Ten Commandments: "Thou shall not kill."

She told him Catholics "take great insult" at hearing scripture described that way, and she said his push for expanded contraception access and "age-appropriate sex education" insults them further.

Talarico tried to pivot toward common ground on contraception instead of answering her.

He never mentioned Jeremiah 1:5, where God tells the prophet he knew him before he formed him in the womb.

He never mentioned Psalm 139, where David describes God knitting him together before he was born.

He never mentioned that the Gospel of Luke uses the exact same Greek word, brephos, for an unborn child in the womb as it does for a baby already in the manger, naming both John the Baptist before his birth and the infant Christ with the identical term.

That is not an obscure footnote to a man who is still working toward a Master of Divinity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which makes the gaps in his Bible study look less like an oversight and more like a strategy.

https://twitter.com/JWheelertv/status/2110540519151673532

Texans Pick a Senator While Talarico Picks a Fight With Scripture

Talarico has already told Texans the state's abortion law is "the most extreme" in the country because it carries no exceptions for rape or incest.

Catholic and evangelical scholars alike have made the case for generations: scripture's silence on the word "abortion" never meant permission, any more than its silence on the word "infanticide" meant ancient Israel allowed parents to leave newborns exposed.

Gagnon, the Wesley Biblical Seminary scholar who dismissed Talarico's reading as "juvenile hermeneutics," has argued that scripture's actual position on abortion comes from reading the Old and New Testaments together, not from a single verse Talarico can wave away on a debate stage.

Jody Hunt did not need a theology chair to make that case on live television.

She needed one line from the Ten Commandments and a live microphone, and she used both to finish what Franklin Graham, Kristan Hawkins, and Glenn Beck had already started from a distance months earlier.

Talarico wants Texas Christians to believe a divinity student running for the Senate understands their Bible better than they do, and he is betting the seat on that belief holding up through November.

On a CNN stage, in front of the entire state, a Catholic voter stood up and proved him wrong with a verse he cannot un-hear.

Texas conservatives do not need Talarico to read the whole Bible before November, just the parts he has already memorized and chosen to skip.

Sources:

• Sister Toldjah, "Catholic Texas Voter Shreds Talarico After Absurd Abortion/Bible Claim During CNN Town Hall," RedState, October 14, 2026.
• Fox News Staff, "Texas Dem Nominee James Talarico Invokes Faith to Defend Abortion Rights, Says Bible Is Silent on Abortion," Fox News, May 26, 2026.
• Christian Post Staff, "Franklin Graham, Others Blast Talarico for Claiming Bible Is Silent on Abortion," Christian Post, May 27, 2026.
• Christian Post Staff, "Top 6 Theological Takes From Senate Candidate James Talarico," Christian Post, 2026.
• Daily Wire Staff, "The Gospel According to James Talarico," Daily Wire, 2026.
• EWTN Staff, "Answering the Theological Case for Abortion Rights," EWTN, 2026.