James Talarico's Campaign Shares Footage Proving He Wasn't in Mental Health Facility

James Talarico's campaign took an unprecedented step to prove he didn't spend the week in a mental health facility in Ohio ... by giving the media screenshots of a video that they say show he was at home in Texas.

Here's the deal ... Talarico's opponent in the Texas Senate race, Ken Paxton, and many conservative social media users have recently been calling BS on Talarico's claims that he has been stuck in bed with a bad case of the flu after he recently vanished from the campaign trail.

Using tenuous evidence -- including an unsubstantiated audio clip and a flight tracker of a private jet flying from Texas to Ohio, which doesn't seem to have any link to Talarico -- rumors swirled that Talarico was actually in a full-blown mental health breakdown in Ohio.

Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller amplified the claims as well ... but now Talarico is pushing back. with the help of a major media outlet.

Talarico's team finally had enough of the speculation ... and handed over screengrabs from Talarico's home security cameras to the New York Times, which the outlet says show the candidate hanging out at home between October 1 and October 8. NYT reviewed the screengrabs but agreed not to publish them for security reasons. Talarico returned to the campaign trail on October 9.

It's a bizarre twist in the tense Senate race ... with polls looking increasingly good for Talarico. Polling data indicates he's leading in the race against Paxton -- who was previously impeached for alleged misconduct while in the state legislature.

Paxton has still refused to debate Talarico.