Legacy media and its GOP-E(lite) cohorts are running with a Wall Street Journal exclusive that centers around Texas Attorney General and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Ken Paxton and his extramarital girlfriend Tracy Duhon taking a trip to Dubai for New Year's Eve 2024.
This can’t be good: Murdoch owned WSJ has the receipts! Ken Paxton partied with US fugitives on New Years Eve in Dubai. And Lordy, there are tapes! I gifted this so you can read it. https://t.co/ZOTrIbNAdE
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) October 13, 2026
Siskind is being deliberately hyperbolic here. There is one 30-second video, and if by "receipts" she means repeating what other Texas outlets have reported over the 23 years of Paxton's political career, then, yeah.
According to the WSJ, Paxton celebrated in Dubai with two American Muslim physicians: Dr. Anosh Ahmed and Dr. Sameer Suhail. According to a 2025 Chicago Sun-Times exclusive, the physicians were hiding out in Dubai to escape the long arm of the law.
Dr. Anosh Ahmed and Dr. Sameer Suhail, entrepreneurs as well as medical doctors, had matching cars, a matching taste for luxury watches and matching condos at Trump Tower.
They also come from similar backgrounds, immigrating to the United States as children — Ahmed from Pakistan, Suhail from Jordan — and got their medical degrees from overseas schools and built images as businessmen flush with cash.
For more than a year, they’ve also been fugitives — living expensive lifestyles in Dubai while dodging accountability for the damage prosecutors say they caused the West Side’s Loretto Hospital, a safety-net facility serving the poorest Chicagoans.
Prosecutors say Ahmed and Suhail worked together to embezzle $15 million from Loretto, a taxpayer-funded hospital, and steered $19 million of hospital contracts to Suhail through “corrupt” means, including bribery.
Ahmed also is charged in a separate COVID-19 testing scheme prosecutors say defrauded the government of about $300 million.
Also in the WSJ exclusive, Ahmed had given "roughly $190,000 to Paxton's previous campaigns," including payments of around $25,000 for Paxton's AG campaign war chest. No indication in the exclusive that Ahmed had also given money to Paxton's current U.S. Senate campaign. Believe me, if that had been revealed in the FEC records, WSJ would have led with it in big, block letters.
The 30-second video, which was breathlessly detailed by Siskind and in the WSJ piece, is as boring and unremarkable as watching paint dry, and doesn't even include Dr. Sameer Suhail in the footage.
WATCH:
In Dubai, Paxton and his girlfriend watched fireworks at a party with two fugitives who had failed to return to the U.S. to face federal healthcare fraud charges. One of them, Anosh Ahmed, had donated $190,000 to Paxton.https://t.co/gbzR3D2POm w/ @MarkMaremont @jdawsey1 pic.twitter.com/osIseCpPYM
— Elizabeth Findell (@efindell) October 13, 2026
Also of note: This occurred months before Paxton announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate on April 8, 2025. In 2023, during his impeachment trial, Paxton admitted to having an affair, so the fact that he chose to travel with his mistress is not any bombshell revelation either. Other than being in the same room as Ahmed and Suhail — admittedly alleged criminals of questionable character — from an investigative perspective, this is a nothingburger. Other than the below three paragraphs from the exclusive, the rest of the over 1500-word article was simply detailing his political beginnings and relitigating Paxton's past scandals.
Further of note: It took three writers to pen this?
Meanwhile, damaging revelations about Paxton continue to emerge. A new scene that could join the list: a previously unreported New Year’s Eve 2024 celebration where Paxton partied in Dubai with two fugitives from U.S. justice and a woman who wasn’t his wife.
As fireworks exploded over the Burj Khalifa skyscraper to welcome 2025, Paxton and his girlfriend Tracy Duhon watched from a luxury high-rise balcony full of people, according to a video of the gathering viewed by The Wall Street Journal, details of which were contained in court filings and confirmed by people familiar with the matter.
Among those at the event with Texas’ top law-enforcement official were two Americans who had been indicted months before on federal healthcare-fraud charges but failed to return to the U.S., Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail, according to the court records and people familiar with the matter. Ahmed, a healthcare executive, had donated $190,000 to Paxton, campaign-finance records show, including $25,000 days after he was indicted.
After rehashing Paxton's issues and scandals since 2002, when he first ran for office and won, the authors glumly acknowledge that as politicians go, Paxton is "Teflon Ken." Texans have repeatedly chosen his record of fighting for Texas and their concerns over his personal foibles and affairs.
Womp Wah.
None of Paxton’s political baggage has sunk him so far. Prosecutors who have taken aim at him said they have learned that people who doubt Paxton do so at their peril.
“It’s just amazing to me that he’s never been held accountable,” said Kent Schaffer, a special prosecutor who filed charges against Paxton in 2015.
This "bombshell" exclusive dropped a few days after the Friday triumphant return of Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate James Talarico from a 13-day disappearance. Talarico allegedly was suffering from a bad case of the flu, but we did not find this out until right-of-center reporting and analysts started asking questions. The legacy media did not seem to care, and his campaign maintained radio silence, not even bothering to issue a proof-of-life video.
After several right-wing influencers started the drumbeat that Talarico had been hospitalized in Ohio over potential mental health issues, Talarico's campaign decided to push back. On Monday, they offered up purportedly time-stamped footage proving that Talarico was home, in Austin, TX, during the dates of his absence.
This footage was conveniently supplied to the New York Times with a pledge that they would not share it publicly.
The New York Times reviewed time-stamped images from a security camera at Mr. Talarico’s home, which were provided by his campaign on the condition they not be published for security reasons. The images showed Mr. Talarico around the exterior of the home and at its entrances between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8.
The episode represented a wild stretch in the Texas Senate race — one of this year’s highest-profile, ugliest and most expensive contests and one that could help decide control of the upper chamber.
The furor over Mr. Talarico’s absence was extraordinary on several levels. It showed how mistrust of politicians and the mainstream news media, combined with online algorithms that incentivize outrageous theories, has created a Wild West of misinformation. It offered a lesson for Democrats: In such an era, it is politically risky for a candidate, even one too ill to campaign, to disappear for nine days.
Tell us something we don't know. So, why didn't the Talarico campaign bother to reach out with something? Nothing rallies the base or engenders more sympathy than a candidate caring enough to call or Zoom from their sick bed to let the voters know they are still in the fight. It would have upped Talarico's poll numbers significantly; instead, he gave his opponent low-hanging fruit, and Republicans and the influencers are still picking through the leaves.
Of course, the New York Times is wagging its finger at Republicans for spreading "falsehoods," and spinning it as Texas Republicans being so "worried" about Paxton's chances that they sent an online army of influencers to manufacture the story. The problem with this take is that Paxton's campaign has not bothered to pay for TikTok influencers. However, Talarico's campaign definitely is.
And it showed how worried Texas Republicans are about Mr. Paxton’s prospects as Mr. Talarico continues to poll ahead of him, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in G.O.P. advertising. No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas in more than three decades.
So, this WSJ exclusive, coupled with audio revelations from private Paxton donor calls dropped days before, are what the Talarico campaign is hoping will be the drip, drip, drip that tanks Paxton's chances of winning.
Person who is close to Ken Paxton says John Cornyn doesn't care if Paxton loses to Talarico. “John Cornyn clearly doesn’t care. That is how bitter he is and how badly he wants Ken to lose. He wants Ken to lose as badly as Jasmine Crockett wants James Talarico to lose.” https://t.co/CI1GEE0Cw5
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) October 12, 2026
However, with 21 days to go before the midterms, the odor of mendacity over Talarico's 13 days of radio silence still lingers in the air. Even Democrat strategist and "The DC Huddle" co-host Dan Turrentine is nervous about it.
In a campaign, 21 days is an eternity, and still plenty of time for another shoe to drop.
WATCH:
💥NEW: Ex-Dem Strategist Dan Turrentine *ADMITS* he's still "NERVOUS" about James Talarico's flu story💥 Turrentine asserted if Talarico is being dishonest, he will lose to Ken Paxton and potentially cost Democrats the Senate altogether. He noted he's particularly concerned because Talarico has failed to provide definitive proof of his whereabouts during his disappearance. Turrentine argued Talarico could simply publish receipts and put the speculation to rest. It's strange that he hasn't done so — and it makes sense Democrats would be apprehensive. Former Clinton Advisor Mark Penn also questioned Talarico's flu story. He said he never witnessed anything like Talarico's absence in the decades he worked on campaigns — and warned it would hurt his Senate bid. Talarico and Paxton are locked in a tight race with just weeks until the election. Texas hasn't elected a Democrat Senator since 1988. Democrats' dreams of a blue Texas may be evaporating.
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) October 12, 2026
💥NEW: Ex-Dem Strategist Dan Turrentine *ADMITS* he's still "NERVOUS" about James Talarico's flu story💥
Turrentine asserted if Talarico is being dishonest, he will lose to Ken Paxton and potentially cost Democrats the Senate altogether.
He noted he's particularly concerned because Talarico has failed to provide definitive proof of his whereabouts during his disappearance.
Turrentine argued Talarico could simply publish receipts and put the speculation to rest.
It's strange that he hasn't done so — and it makes sense Democrats would be apprehensive.
Former Clinton Advisor Mark Penn also questioned Talarico's flu story.
He said he never witnessed anything like Talarico's absence in the decades he worked on campaigns — and warned it would hurt his Senate bid.
Talarico and Paxton are locked in a tight race with just weeks until the election.
Texas hasn't elected a Democrat Senator since 1988.
Democrats' dreams of a blue Texas may be evaporating.
To wrap this up with a bow, as Cohen mentioned above, Clinton-era pollster Mark Penn is very clear that people are going to want a better explanation than the flu excuse if Talarico expects to get their vote and flip Texas blue.
"Never seen anything quite like this," Penn said.
WATCH:
Mark Penn on Talarico: "This is super odd" I don't understand anyone who can't at least agree with that. 🤷🏻♂️ https://t.co/vTIl1c6jgi
— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) October 13, 2026
When you've lost the Democrat strategists...
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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