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Colbert and Talarico show the easiest way to promote speech is to suppress it

MAGA should have had nothing to worry about in keeping its Texas senate seat. In 2024, Trump won Texas by 13.7 percentage points, a significant increase from his 5.6-point margin in 2020. Democrats have not won a statewide election there in over 30 years.

But Trump is said to be anxious. On Jan. 31, a Texas Democrat easily beat a Republican in a state Senate district that Trump had won by 17 points in 2024.  

Early voting has started in the primaries. A January sample of 550 likely Texas Republican primary voters conducted by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs shows Attorney General Ken Paxton leading Sen. John Cornyn, the incumbent, by 7 percentage points. Trump has declined to endorse either candidate, saying they are both “good.”  

A similar Hobby School poll of 550 likely Democratic primary voters shows the fiery Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D) ahead of state Rep.  James Talarico (D) by 8 percentage points. The survey is a change from recent polls that found both races to be neck-and-neck. 

Both Democrats are obviously anti-Trump. But Trump has a more subtle motive to suppress Talarico’s message. Polls give him a slight edge over Crockett in a matchup with Paxton or Cornyn in the general.

With Trump’s Texas approval ratings down to 47 percent, Democrats think they have a lot to run on, whoever their opponent is. Cornyn, 74 years old and a four-term senator, is said to be unpopular in the state. Paxton, a strong Trump ally, is drenched in scandal. 

In 2015, Paxton was indicted on state securities fraud charges, but the charges were dismissed upon his agreement for restitution to the alleged victims. In 2023, he was impeached amid allegations of bribery, abuse of his office, misapplication of public funds, obstruction of justice in the securities fraud case and false statements regarding his financial interests, only to be narrowly acquitted by the Texas Senate. 

With his campaign trailing Crockett in the polls, Talarico needed a shot in the arm, and he got one. He was slated last week to go on Stephen Colbert’s CBS “Late Show” for a 15-minute taped conversation. It was a go until it was a stop, when everything hit the fan, including the First Amendment.

The broadcast was ultimately not put on the airwaves, because then CBS might have been required to give Crockett equal time. Trump has previously floated using the Federal Communication Commission’s “equal time” provision against talk show hosts.

“Let’s just call this what it is,” Colbert said.

FCC chairman Brendan Carr called it a “hoax” to blame the Trump administration for CBS’s programming decisions. But since Trump’s return to the White House last January, the FCC has aggressively targeted media institutions Trump has criticized.

Anna Gomez, the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner called it, “yet another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this Administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech.” She added that the FCC isn’t legally authorized to “create a climate that chills free expression.”

Colbert claimed lawyers for Paramount had implemented the CBS decision. CBS “in no uncertain terms” spiked his interview with Talarico over regulatory concerns surrounding the rule requiring broadcasters to provide equal airtime to opposing political candidates during elections.

So Colbert posted the interview on the “Late Show” YouTube channel, where it went viral, becoming his most-watched interview since the start of 2025. As of Monday, the short interview had been seen by more than 8.7 million viewers. Talarico said last Wednesday his campaign raised $2.5 million in the 24 hours after the interview was posted. Crockett conceded that the contretemps had given Talarico a “boost.”

News programs have long been exempted from the equal time rule, and it had been extended to talk shows. “We looked and we can’t find one example of this rule being enforced for any talk show interview,” Colbert said. Last month, however, the FCC issued a notice suggesting the exemption may not apply to talk shows “motivated by partisan purposes.”  

CBS contended Colbert was “not prohibited” from broadcasting the interview but rather given “legal guidance” by the corporate attorneys that it could trigger the equal time rule. They say they “presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.” 

Colbert said he doesn’t want an “adversarial relationship with the network,” but that he was taken aback by the lawyers’ decision to release the statement.

“I am just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies,” he said. Staring at a printout of CBS’s statement, he declared, “I don’t even know what to do with this crap,” before pulling out a dog waste bag and using it to crumple the page before throwing it away.

Colbert’s time with CBS is winding down. Paramount Global, the network’s parent company, announced last summer that it would soon be cancelling “The Late Show.” Even though Paramount termed the move a financial decision, it prompted widespread condemnation from Democrats and press freedom advocates. 

The avuncular CBS icon Walter Cronkite would be flabbergasted. Even his signature signoff, “And that’s the way it is,” could not have hidden his embarrassment. 

James D. Zirin is a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and a published legal analyst.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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