Jimmy Kimmel shared his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico on YouTube after the FCC threatened Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC, their affiliates, and local stations.
Kimmel explained the situation during his monologue on Wednesday night’s
episode, saying he decided to move the interview off air “out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense.”
The 20-minute conversation instead was posted to the late-night show’s YouTube page on Thursday night.
“I mentioned last night we are being targeted by the FCC for the crime of interviewing political candidates,” Kimmel explained in the clip. “Even though for years we, and every other late-night talk show, have welcomed numerous candidates, including Donald Trump. … Tonight we are bypassing the public airwaves and hosting this interview on YouTube, even though our government would clearly prefer we not do it at all.”
Kimmel then welcomed Talarico, who is running against state Attorney General Ken Paxton. “Why are they so scared of you?” the host asked. “Well, they’re worried we’re going to win this race in Texas,” Talarico replied. “But we are the underdogs until the last vote is counted. We’re not just going up against the most corrupt politician in Texas. We’re going up against this entire corrupt system.”
During the interview, Talarico discussed Republicans being scared of him winning the Senate race and Trump calling him a “freaky guy.”
“I think people are tired of politics as professional wrestling,” Talarico said. “These old guys, lathered up in their fake tans, throwing corny nicknames at each other. These nicknames, they don’t lower the price of groceries. They don’t lower the price of gas. They don’t lower the cost of heath care. They don’t actually improve anybody’s life.”
He added, “And that’s why I’m in politics. The only reason I ran for office, the only reason I’m running for the U.S. Senate, is to try to love my neighbor through public policy, trying to make my neighbor’s life easier and better and less stressful.”
Yesterday, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle accused Kimmel of “play-acting” in order to “create a false narrative about this administration’s policies.” In a statement to USA Today, Ingle said, “Chairman Carr has not threatened him regarding interviewing James Talarico, or any other candidate. Any media outlet blindly amplifying Kimmel’s egocentric delusion should insist on proof. Of which they will find none.”
Kimmel’s interview with Talarico comes nearly six months after former Late Show host Stephen Colbert claimed lawyers for CBS barred the Late Show from airing an interview with Talarico, also citing threats from the FCC. “He was supposed to be here, but 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 at the time. CBS denied they prohibited the Late Show from broadcasting the interview.
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