Many MAGA Republicans have egg on their face after promoting a false rumor about Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico ― and Fox News is choosing to blame the victim.

Talarico recently took nine days off from his campaign to recover from the flu. In the interim, conservatives spread a rumor that he had suffered a mental health episode and had flown to the Lindner Center of Hope in Cincinnati, Ohio, for treatment. Among them were right-wing voices Nick Sortor and Rhein Amacher, who claimed a call to the center confirmed Talarico had been discharged.

The rumor spread through conservative media, and Talarico’s Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, attempted to make it stick. But the hoax fell apart after photos showed the candidate on stage in Texas with Kacey Musgraves a day before he was supposedly discharged from the center. In addition, the facility said Sunday night that Talarico “has never received treatment” there.

On Tuesday, Fox News wrote a piece about the failed Talarico smear titled, “New Evidence Debunks Talarico Psych Hospital Rumor After ‘Mind-Numbing Malpractice’ Fuels Firestorm,” that suggested the whole scandal, including the right-wing-fueled false mental health, was his fault.

A social media post promoting the story said that while “Talarico’s viral hospital rumor has been debunked by time-stamped security footage reviewed by The New York Times,” the bigger story may be “why his campaign sat on the evidence while the conspiracy theory exploded across social media for days.”

There was more:

“With Election Day just weeks away in one of the biggest Senate races in the country, the question has shifted from where Talarico was to why his team let the narrative spiral unchecked when they had the receipts the entire time.”

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico's viral hospital rumor has been debunked by time-stamped security footage reviewed by The New York Times — but the bigger story may be why his campaign sat on the evidence while the conspiracy theory exploded across social media for… pic.twitter.com/zLujc1wmSH

HuffPost reached out to Fox News for comment, but no one immediately responded.

Many people on social media didn’t think it was Talarico’s job to protect his opponents from looking foolish.

"The story is not that RW influencers concocted a false and defamatory conspiracy theory, but why Talarico didn't debunk the theory earlier" is peak Fox News phoniness in the service of getting Republicans elected. https://t.co/RXh1HM6XUl

The real story is they let us hang ourselves by our own rope and now we are embarrassed about that https://t.co/Nt8blI5mx7

The big story is the hoax, not Talarico not doing anything fast enough to dispel said hoax.

the bigger story is the dishonesty of MAGAoperatives who fabricated the smear. it wasn't a rumor. it was a malicious lie bypeople who thought that could help their corrupt candidate win. https://t.co/CtfrzwEYEQ

Woof. The bigger story is not "why his campaign sat on the evidence." The answer is obvious: They thought it was really stupid until it gained enough purchse to respond to. The bigger story is that Nick Sortor, Elon, and GOP operatives collaborated to spread a stupid lie. https://t.co/pHNK7eHGct

Because the conspiracy theory was so absurd no one believed it and made the right look so insane it probably worked out in his favor. In a way, this inoculated him against pretty much anything else the right could say about him because they've proven they'll make shit up

Slow news day, huh?Fox News says the story is that “Talarico’s campaign sat on the proof he wasn’t in hospital”No.They publicly said he was sick, the first day he was sick.And kept repeating that and denying rumors the entire time.While trash rags pushed conspiracies. https://t.co/tIJKxHrXIL

The bigger story is that the richest man in the world helped the Paxton campaign spread a completely made up story about his opponent and no one will face any consequences https://t.co/j4XgTR0sVQ

I love this rightoid logic.Why didn't they expose how stupid our side is earlier?If you spent time responding to right-wing idiocy on social media, it's all you would ever do. And there's no law against making your opponents look dumb. Fox trying to cover for the morons in… https://t.co/raYzM06onj

"The bigger story may be..." This is truly beyond parody https://t.co/NqDXgAfeVO

This is the worst framing I’ve ever seen.It’s bad, even for you.

Yea we fell for the story but you're actually the bad guy for not fact checking us fast enough https://t.co/wF2ezwXrwz

“We made up some bullshit — but the bigger story is people believed it” https://t.co/97TOLD49Wa

Talarico currently leads Paxton 48.1% to 45.5%, according to RealClearPolitics.com.

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