In recent elections, I’ve allowed myself to get swept up in the “Texas is gonna turn blue!” hype, only to be sorely disappointed. To be clear: I’m not saying it’s hopeless to think Democrats can win. What I’m saying, is that I personally only have the emotional bandwidth to report in a calm, scientific, objective tone that the Lone Star State has some very close races in this year’s midterms. One of these is the senate contest, where the two candidates could not be more different. On the Republican side, there is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose resume boasts achievements like doing The Emperor’s Trump’s bidding, getting impeached, and being sued for divorce “on biblical grounds.”
Though that last one is not professional, it’s important when comparing Paxton to the Democratic nominee: State Representative James Talarico, a self-described progressive Christian. Talarico has been scaring MAGA Republicans all year, to the point where FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has reversed course on a policy of 30 years wherein talk shows were exempted from the equal time rules when it came to political candidates. The FCC started targeting Talarico ahead of the primaries, and they’re doing it again in the run up to November. Which is why Jimmy Kimmel announced during his Wednesday show that his upcoming interview with Talarico will only be released on YouTube, all because of FCC threats.
“I’ll be interviewing James Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances,” Kimmel, 58, said during his monologue.
He explained, “You know, for the whole 20-plus years of our show, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like [David] Letterman did, [Jay] Leno did, Arsenio [Hall]. … I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates, from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself.”
“I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015 and at that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates,” Kimmel continued. “In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the [Republican presidential] nominee in 2016.”
“But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel alleged, “Now that he’s president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings, it would seem they don’t like.”
“And so out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television,” Kimmel noted. “It will be posted on YouTube instead. So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube channel, where you will see it in its entirety.”
He added, “Thank goodness we have that because in the American we live in right now, that is the best that we can do… until November, of course,” referring to the upcoming midterm elections.
…During his Tuesday, September 8, monologue, Kimmel took aim at [FCC chairman] Carr as he celebrated his show’s 4,000th episode.
“It’s a lot of shows. According to the White House, it’s too many shows,” Kimmel joked. “This show premiered after the Super Bowl in January 2003. There are those who said we would never last this long. There are even those who used the regulatory might of the FCC to unconstitutionally try to make sure we didn’t last this long. But we did it the hard way, Brendan, and we’re still here!”
This is what the Late Show with Stephen Colbert (RIP!) had to do in February when the FCC threw a similar tantrum. And the FCC has definitely been gunning for The View after their Talarico interview actually made it on the air. What a world. Because I love documentaries (and, apparently, making my heart hurt), I just watched the 2022 four-part series Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal. The heartache part came in watching as all the institutions of government stood up to the one faction — Nixon/the Executive branch — that was taking a wrecking ball to the constitution. Including members of his own party!!! Today, that sounds like science fiction! Today, talk show hosts are defending the constitution as the Republicans cling to power. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but please vote blue this November. And beyond.
Note by Celebitchy: The interview came out very late at night before Kismet had a chance to see it. This guy is awesome no wonder they’re so afraid of him.
I deeply appreciate the courage it takes today to continue calling out our naked Emperor and his cotillion of dress makers.
Good interview. What makes his campaign work is his focus on top-down politics (they are robber barons!) while his opponent(s) try to attack him from a right-left cultural divide.
We live in Texas. My husband was so mad about the shenanigans around this interview that he sent in a donation to Talarico last night.
Trump was stupid to back Paxton in the primary. If he’d thrown his weigh behind Cornyn and helped him win, the race wouldn’t be this close. Paxton is a horrible general election candidate. That said, he still might win. It’s Texas. The cities are Blue but the state as a whole is still Red, at most a Reddish-Purple. But Talarico has a shot.
I live in Texas, so I have a front seat to this nonsense. When the race was between Corny and Pax Donnie endorsed John, remember he was telling Ken to drop out, but once Dead eye won the primary, he now is forced to pretend to like him.
I live in Austin and this is not how I remember it going. Most of the GOP went after Paxton and spent a ton of money in the primary which Cornyn was ahead in the first primary. Trump refused to endorse either one of them until the runoff where he DID endorse Paxton much to the GOP dismay. And Paxton won and here we are now.
as someone who lives here, I’ve learned not to get my hopes up. Ken Paxton is absolutely the only reason why the race is close. If Trump didn’t exist, I’d say he was the worst person in politics in the country. This has basically been a one party state my whole life, and Paxton still managed to get impeached by the Texas GOP. That’s how insanely, openly corrupt, criminal, and just generally a loathsome piece of shit he is. Like there are literally zero redeeming qualities about him as a human. But this state still voted for Trump three times, and they’re basically the same person, so.
I’ll be sure to watch it, which I wouldn’t have, otherwise. Thanks, FCC!