State Representative James Talarico (D-TX) was scheduled to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on February 16th. What followed, however, may have done more for his Senate campaign than the appearance ever could have.
CBS lawyers intervened at the last minute, contacting the show directly to block the segment. Host Stephen Colbert attributed the decision to the Federal Communcations Commision's (FCC) "equal time rule," a federal broadcast regulation requiring networks to provide equal airtime to all candidates in a race if they feature any one of them.
With Rep. Talarico engaged in a competitive Democratic primary, CBS was unwilling to take on that liability.
Colbert addressed the situation openly on air, informing his audience that he had been prohibited from hosting Talarico and even from acknowledging that the interview had been canceled.
He disclosed all of it regardless.
The Interview
Talarico used the moment to highlight what he called a contradiction. The Republican Party had spent years campaigning against "cancel culture." Now, he argued, the tables had turned.
"This is the party that ran against cancel culture," he said, "and now they are trying to control what we watch, what we say, and what we read."
"This is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture — the kind that comes from the top. Corporate media executives are selling out the First Amendment to curry favor with corrupt politicians," Talarico concluded in the interview. "A threat to any of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights."
Growing Attention
The interview was released on YouTube in place of the television broadcast and quickly went viral, accumulating over 40 million views across Talarico's social media platforms.
By comparison, The Late Show draws an average of approximately 2 million viewers per episode. Within 24 hours of the interview cancellation, Talarico's campaign reported raising $2.5 million in donations.
Talarico issued a response on social media, writing, "This is the interview Donald Trump didn't want you to see.”
He added, "His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried we're about to flip Texas."
This comes as Talarico faces Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in the Democratic primary for Senator John Cornyn's Senate seat.
