The tense Texas Democratic Senate primary has been roiled by yet another online firestorm after an influencer accused state Rep. James Talarico of calling a former opponent a “mediocre Black man” — a claim he said was a “mischaracterization of a private conversation.”

The influencer, Morgan Thompson, who posts under the username @morga_tt on TikTok, posted the accusation in a video on Sunday in which she claimed that Talarico told her in a private conversation after a Jan. 12 town hall in Plano, Texas, that he had “signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable, intelligent Black woman.” That reference was allegedly to former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who was in the Senate race until December, when he dropped out right before Rep. Jasmine Crockett joined. Both Allred and Crockett are Black; Talarico is white.

Talarico pushed back on Thompson’s description of their conversation.

“In my praise of Congresswoman Crockett, I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre – but his life and service are not. I would never attack him on the basis of race,” Talarico said in the statement.

Thompson said in a video Monday that she has no recording of the conversation but laid out evidence that she had been in contact with Talarico’s campaign to arrange it, including a photo of her standing with Talarico at the event, along with multiple texts she says were exchanged with an unnamed campaign staffer to plan the interaction. She had endorsed Talarico but said she now supports Crockett.

In an interview with Blue Light News before Talarico issued his statement, Thompson said she anticipated that not having a recording of the conversation with Talarico would raise skepticism of her account, but she still “felt like it was important enough to bring forward, given the nature of everything.” She declined to provide the name and contact information for that staffer so that Blue Light News could verify their connection to the campaign.

The alleged exchange threatens to upend a primary in which polls show voters are sharply dividing along racial lines, with most Black voters supporting Crockett, and majorities of white and Latino voters supporting Talarico.

Allred fired back. “James, if you want to compliment Black women, just do it. Just do it. Don’t do it while also tearing down a Black man,” he said in a video he posted to Instagram on Monday.

“When you make an accusation, you often have a bit of confession in it,” continued Allred, who is now running for Congress in the 33rd District against Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas). “Maybe you use the word mediocre because there was something creeping into your mind about yourself.”

Crockett, in a statement, said that by posting his response video, Allred “drew a line in the sand.”

“He made it clear that he did not take allegations of an attack on him as simply another day in the neighborhood, but more importantly, his post wasn’t about himself,” she said. “It was a moment that he decided to stand for all people who have been targeted and talked about in a demeaning way as our country continues to be divided.”

Thompson said in the video that she had been offered the chance to talk to Talarico because she was unhappy that Talarico’s campaign had sent out fundraising messages from Democratic strategist James Carville given Carville’s calls for Democrats to move away from “woke” politics. She had previously endorsed Talarico and said she worked with his campaign as part of its content creator outreach program but now supports Crockett.

It’s the latest online explosion related to the primary. Last month, the hosts of popular podcast “Las Culturistas” urged people not to send money to Crockett because she had a history of “making it too obviously about” herself, a comment from host Matt Rogers that cohost Bowen Yang agreed with. That some of her supporters said the remarks were racist and misogynist, setting off off a fierce debate about what type of Democratic candidate can do well in red states like Texas. The hosts later apologized.

A spokesperson for Allred, Sandhya Raghavan, said in a statement that his response to Talarico’s alleged remarks “speaks to a frustration that resonates far beyond this moment.”

“When a former NFL player, civil rights attorney, and former congressman can be dismissed as ‘mediocre,’ it reveals the impossible standards Black candidates are held to,” she said. “Colin refused to accept that disrespect in silence — and in doing so, he stood up for every Black professional who has had their qualifications unfairly dismissed.”

After a nine-month stint helping run the FBI, former deputy director Dan Bongino is a podcaster once again.

On Bongino’s first show back on Monday, President Donald Trump briefly dialed in, offering Bongino — who resigned from the agency in December — well wishes.

But otherwise, the episode was more of a two-hour monologue that saw Bongino attempting to skewer old enemies — namely the mainstream media — and reconnect with the masses that launched his name, years ago, into the MAGA stratosphere.

“The podfather is back,” he declared, “and I’m here to take back this movement.”

Before joining the FBI last year, Bongino was a prolific right-wing podcaster who peddled in deep-state conspiracy theories. As the agency’s No. 2, working alongside the real-world powers he used to rail against, Bongino was often caught between his past digital footprint and his new job helping lead one of the nation’s premier law enforcement agencies. 

For years, he entertained conspiracies about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s death, dismissing the authorities’ claims that the late financier killed himself. Bongino built a fanbase by stoking these very fires — and angered many when, after joining the FBI, he swiftly backtracked his rhetoric. Online, some of Bongino’s former supporters have slammed him as a sellout.

The show was a big moment for Bongino, whose tenure at the FBI was at times chaotic. The show’s launch included a Times Square billboard, and opened with around 140,000 viewers — according to conservative video platform Rumble’s view count — and peaked at around 220,000.

After a victory lap around the nation’s top law enforcement agency, Bongino is not returning to the friendliest audience. And he had some choice words for any critics.

“I want to address the grifters out there who mistakenly thought I wasn’t coming back,” he said during the livestream. “This movement’s been hijacked by a small group of dipshits and bums and losers, who are nothing but doomers under the frame of accountability.”

This was the throughline for much of the two-hour segment, which saw Bongino ripping into a number of his critics. “Get your lips and just pucker them up and plant a big wet one on my ass,” he told “the libs and their media pals.”

The “dipshits” in media, he said, remain “totally divorced from reality.”

And to alleged leakers at the FBI: “You guys destroyed the place, and you tried to destroy us too,” he said. “But I’m back now, and you can go fuck yourself.”

Bongino, exhaling at the end of his minutes-long diatribe, smiles into the camera: “We’re so back. Aren’t we?”

But unlike the first version of his podcast, Bongino largely shied away from conspiracy theories — except for when, 15 minutes into the show, his livestream abruptly cut off thanks to a technical glitch. 

“Rumble is under attack, this show is under attack, this is what these scumbags do,” he said. “Can’t have a voice like me speaking out.”

“They just don’t want me to talk,” he repeated for the rest of the show.

He also offered “behind the scenes” insights into his time at the FBI, defending himself against critics who misunderstood, he said, the decisions they made — including the agency’s handling of the Epstein files. 

“When you get selected for one of these principal or deputy positions, everything you do is a level 10 decision,” Bongino said. “Find out which one is the shittier decision and avoid it. That’s the best you can do.

“Here’s the problem with the Epstein mess,” he continued. “The FBI doesn’t have the evidence many thought it did. … There were not tapes with powerful men raping kids. There was not a list. Epstein’s rolodex was already public. The files are largely unreleasable for many reasons.”

The files didn’t contain the smoking gun people were expecting, Bongino said, but “this administration got you the information.”

Near the end of the show, Trump — who hand-picked Bongino for his post last year — dialed in for a brief interview, where the two discussed the administration’s crime crackdown, Minnesota’s welfare fraud scandal and National Guard deployments.

“I’ll tell you what, if I were a Democratic governor and I were in charge of Chicago, as an example, I would be begging Donald Trump to come,” Trump told Bongino.

Trump took another chance to rail at the results of the 2020 election (“I won in a landslide,” he said), urging Republicans to “nationalize the voting” and suggesting taking over voting “in at least 15 places,” which he didn’t name. And he patted himself on the back for his military actions in Iran and Venezuela, saying the U.S. is “respected again like never before.”

“Listen, you did great in the FBI,” Trump told Bongino. “I’m very torn. I think, maybe, I’d rather have you where you are. “Very few people can do what you do, and your voice is a very important one.”

Bongino, who has generally been a reliable supporter of Trump, intends to host his show every weekday. And for those expecting a Bongino chastened by his time in government — or those looking to take his space in the MAGA media sphere — he had a direct closing message.

“All my bullshit detractors or whatever,” Bongino said at the end of the episode, “don’t know shit about anything. Throwing popcorn from the front row. We’re the number one livestream in the world. … I’m such a target that they came after the whole damn website. That’s how bad they want to keep me off the air.”

“But I have my first — guys, you ready for this screenshot? — double barrel to those who tried to stop us,” he continued, silently flipping two middle fingers to the camera.