![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/O5V2RXDTHZE27BKE66UQJIQDGY.jpg\")
FILE – This photo combination shows Stephen Colbert, left, in Los Angeles, Sept. 12, 2022, and Texas Rep. James Talarico, Aug. 16, 2025, in Chicago.(Source: AP Photo\/Talia Sprague, Jae C. Hong, file)<\/p>\nAUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night\u2019s broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.<\/p>\n
Colbert\u2019s statements overshadowed Tuesday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Colbert said CBS lawyers said in \u201cno uncertain terms\u201d that Talarico could not appear on \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
FILE – This photo combination shows Stephen Colbert, left, in Los Angeles, Sept. 12, 2022, and Texas Rep. James Talarico, Aug. 16, 2025, in Chicago.(Source: AP Photo\/Talia Sprague, Jae C. Hong, file)<\/p>\n
\u201cThen 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,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cAnd because my network clearly doesn\u2019t want us to talk about this, let\u2019s talk about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
CBS disputed Colbert\u2019s account, saying its attorneys only \u201cprovided legal guidance\u201d that broadcasting an interview with Talarico could trigger the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s equal-time rule.<\/p>\n
Crockett expressed skepticism about the \u201cmania\u201d playing out on the first day of early voting, \u201cwhich feels kind of convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two hot Senate races ramp up<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Talarico posted a nearly minute-long clip of his interview with Colbert on X, calling it \u201cthe interview Donald Trump didn\u2019t want you to see.\u201d During the interview, Talarico said he thinks Trump is worried that Democrats can win the Texas seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration was playing politics and was trying to control what a late-night show puts on air, something that\u2019s never been done before,\u201d Talarico told reporters during a news conference Tuesday in Austin after he voted early. \u201cThe executives at CBS were willing to go along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s daytime show \u201cThe View.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told reporters after voting early in Dallas that she still was looking into the situation but added: \u201cI\u2019ve done Colbert a number of times. I\u2019ve done \u2018The View\u2019 a number of times. I\u2019ve done (Jimmy) Kimmel a number (of times). I\u2019ve done all of these shows a number of times.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Warnings from the FCC<\/p>\n
Broadcast networks have been required to give equal time to political candidates, but that rule hasn\u2019t traditionally been applied to talk shows.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cmotivated by partisan purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The public notice said the FCC had not seen evidence that talk shows would qualify for an exemption from the rule for \u201cbona fide news.\u201d Carr has often criticized network talk shows, suggesting last year that probing \u201cThe View\u201d \u2014 whose hosts have frequently been critical of Trump \u2014 over the exemption might be \u201cworthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FCC did not immediately respond Tuesday to a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n
Colbert\u2019s days as host are limited, following CBS\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
But the timing of that announcement \u2014 three days after Colbert criticized the settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d story \u2014 led two U.S. senators to publicly question the motives behind the move, which served to remove from air one of Trump\u2019s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.<\/p>\n
Candidates look to avoid runoffs<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Hunt\u2019s new ad shows photos of him with Trump, hitting Cornyn over his long political career and declaring, \u201cThis is our moment to end the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Paxton\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Paxton on Monday night portrayed Cornyn as a creature of the Washington establishment, adding, \u201cWell, I\u2019m not their person and I\u2019m never going to be their person.\u201d<\/p>\n
GOP fears about Paxton<\/p>\n
Paxton looks like the GOP\u2019s front-runner, even though Cornyn\u2019s campaign and allied super PACs had spent more than $54 million on television advertising since last year, according to the ad-tracing service AdImpact.<\/p>\n
Republican Senate leaders in Washington say Paxton would require hundreds of millions of dollars more to defend in a general election than Cornyn would \u2014 and that the party shouldn\u2019t have to spend in a state Trump carried by over 13 percentage points.<\/p>\n
Cornyn hit on those concerns during his Austin rally, saying nominating Paxton would \u201ctake a toll on everybody on the ballot\u201d for the GOP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll pay the price of having an albatross like our corrupt attorney general around their neck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina, and Hanna from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writers David Bauder in New York and Thomas Beaumont in Tyler, Texas, contributed.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n