The interview that Donald Trump’s FCC ordered Stephen Colbert not to televise on The Late Show is now live on YouTube.
Texas representative and Senate hopeful James Talarico sat down with Colbert for the interview on Monday, despite FCC head Brendan Carr’s orders to CBS. While it did not air on CBS, it garnered 1.5 million views on YouTube as of early Tuesday afternoon—far more than Colbert’s average celebrity interview.
“We were told, in no uncertain terms, by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said Monday. In lieu of the televised interview, the host, whose show is ending in May following his on-air comments that CBS’s settlement with the president over its campaign trail 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris was a “big, fat bribe,” used the time to lay into Carr—and CBS, for caving.
“FCC you!” Colbert declared.
Talarico addressed the Trump administration’s moves on The Late Show, telling Colbert, “I think that Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas.”
He added, “This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read. And this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture. The kind that comes from the top.”
In addition to Carr’s crackdown on Colbert, the administration announced an investigation into ABC’s daytime talk show The View after Talarico appeared on the program, citing the rarely enforced “equal-time” rule, which would require networks to provide equal airtime to Democratic and Republican political guests.
“I feel like we’re building something really special in Texas,” Talarico said on Monday, “And clearly Donald Trump has taken note.”
One point of interest is Talarico’s faith: the Texas representative is a Presbyterian seminarian studying to become an ordained minister. His take on religion and politics is resonating with constituents in the MAGA stronghold where Talarico is running to flip the Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Rep. John Cornyn.
Polls show Talarico going back and forth between leading and trailing Democratic House Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who’s made a name for herself for going toe to toe with MAGA, in the Senate primary race.
Cornyn also faces a significant challenge on the right from Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who, according to The Texas Tribune, led the incumbent by 7 points at the end of last month.
Talarico told Colbert that his aim is to take back the narrative about religion and politics from MAGA. “For 50 years, the religious right—a political movement, that is the perfect description for it—convinced a lot of our fellow Christians that the most important issues were abortion and gay marriage. Two issues that aren’t mentioned in the Bible. Two issues that Jesus never talked about,” he said.
“Jesus in Matthew 25 tells us exactly how you and I, and every one of our fellow believers, how we’re going to be judged and how we’re going to be saved,” Talarico explained. “By feeding the hungry, by healing the sick, by welcoming the stranger—nothing about going to church, nothing about voting Republican. It was all about how you treat other people.”
“I’ve said before, don’t tell me what you believe. Show me how you treat other people, and I’ll tell you what you believe,” he continued. “My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas. And when I was little, he told me that Christianity is a simple religion—not an easy religion, he would always clarify, but a simple religion—because Jesus gave us two commandments: love God and love neighbor. And there was no exception to that second commandment.”
“Love thy neighbor, regardless of race or gender, or sexual orientation, or immigration status, or religious affiliation,” Talarico concluded. “And it’s why I have fought so hard for the separation of church and state in the state capital.”
