AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.
Colbert's statements overshadowed Tuesday's start of early voting for Texas primaries that feature a heated Democratic race between Talarico and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Four-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn also faces the fight of his long career against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.
Colbert said CBS lawyers said in “no uncertain terms” that Talarico could not appear on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” broadcast because the network feared violating guidance from the Trump administration. Colbert nevertheless interviewed Talarico for nearly 15 minutes and posted the video on YouTube, because online material does not fall under the equal-time rule.
“Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on. I could not mention me not having him on,” Colbert said. “And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
CBS disputed Colbert's account, saying its attorneys only “provided legal guidance” that broadcasting an interview with Talarico could trigger the Federal Communications Commission's equal-time rule.
Crockett expressed skepticism about the “mania” playing out on the first day of early voting, “which feels kind of convenient.”
Two hot Senate races ramp up
Both Talarico and Crockett have built national profiles through viral social media clips as media organizations have navigated around changing broadcast guidance issued under President Donald Trump governing how they interview political candidates.
Talarico posted a nearly minute-long clip of his interview with Colbert on X, calling it “the interview Donald Trump didn't want you to see.”
“I think Donald Trump is worried we're about to flip Texas,” Talarico told Colbert during their interview. “This is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top.”
Crockett suggested that Colbert could have avoided an issue with the FCC by having her on the show, as he has in the past. Both she and Talarico also have appeared on ABC's daytime show, “The View.”
She told reporters after voting early in Dallas that she still was looking into the situation but added, “I’ve done Colbert a number of times. I've done ‘The View’ a number of times. I've done (Jimmy) Kimmel a number (of times). I’ve done all of these shows a number of times.”
On the Republican side, Paxton stepped up what had been a low-key campaign with a rally Monday evening in Tyler in eastern Texas, while Cornyn had his own rally Tuesday in Austin. Hunt released a new television ad on Tuesday.
Warnings from the FCC
Broadcast networks have been required to give equal time to political candidates, but that rule hasn't traditionally been applied to talk shows.
In January, the Federal Communications Commission issued new guidance warning late-night and daytime hosts that they need to give political candidates equal time. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, questioned the talk show exemption and posited that hosts were “motivated by partisan purposes.”
The public notice said the FCC had not seen evidence that talk shows would qualify for an exemption from the rule for “bona fide news.” Carr has often criticized network talk shows, suggesting last year that probing “The View” — whose hosts have frequently been critical of Trump — over the exemption might be “worthwhile.”
The FCC did not immediately respond Tuesday to a message seeking comment.
Colbert’s days as host are limited, following CBS’ announcement last year that it was canceling his show this May for financial reasons, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape.
But the timing of that announcement — three days after Colbert criticized the settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story — led two U.S. senators to publicly question the motives behind the move, which served to remove from air one of Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.
Candidates look to avoid runoffs
Meanwhile, Talarico and Crockett are hoping to avoid a May 26 runoff by capturing at least 50% of the Democratic vote in the March 3 primary. While Paxton also is, until Friday, the only ad his campaign ran had attacked Hunt.
Hunt is trying to appeal to voters seeking an alternative to Cornyn but uneasy about Paxton. The Texas attorney general beat a 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges and reached a deal to end a long-running securities fraud case but now faces a contentious divorce over allegations of adultery.
Hunt's new ad shows photos of him with Trump, hitting Cornyn over his long political career and declaring, “This is our moment to end the status quo.”
But Paxton's campaign has been airing its own ad featuring video clips of him with Trump since Friday. The president had not endorsed any candidate as of Monday.
Paxton on Monday night portrayed Cornyn as a creature of the Washington establishment, adding, “Well, I’m not their person and I’m never going to be their person.”
GOP fears about Paxton
Paxton looks like the GOP's front-runner, even though Cornyn’s campaign and allied super PACs had spent more than $54 million on television advertising since last year, according to the ad-tracing service AdImpact.
Republican Senate leaders in Washington say Paxton would require hundreds of millions of dollars more to defend in a general election than Cornyn would — and that the party shouldn't have to spend in a state Trump carried by over 13 percentage points.
Cornyn hit on those concerns during his Austin rally, saying nominating Paxton would “take a toll on everybody on the ballot” for the GOP.
“We’ll pay the price of having an albatross like our corrupt attorney general around their neck,” he said.
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Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina and, Hanna, from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press reporter David Bauder contributed to this report from New York, and Associated Press reporter Tom Beaumont, from Tyler, Texas.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
