Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico knew his interview with late-night host Stephen Colbert wouldn’t air on television before he left for New York to do it, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
“Days before the trip, Mr. Colbert’s producers told them the network — nervous about federal regulators — would only post the interview online. The Talarico campaign had a choice: Cancel the trip and crow about the Trump administration trying to muzzle him, or say nothing, film the segment, and hope Mr. Colbert would tell his audience the story of federal interference,” the outlet reported.
Talarico sat down with Colbert in February for an interview that the show only posted to its YouTube channel. Colbert alleged CBS had prohibited them from airing the interview due to equal time constraints. However, CBS denied Colbert’s argument and said the show just needed to offer equal time to Talarico’s opponents.
“They said nothing and filmed. The YouTube clip gained more than 9 million viewers. Donations poured in. Internal campaign polling by his opponent showed the ground shift in Mr. Talarico’s direction,” the Times report continued.
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Talarico blamed the situation on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) at the time in multiple posts to social media.
His opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who lost the race last week to Talarico, put the blame on CBS and Colbert. Crockett argued in statements to reporters and interviews that the government did not shut down the interview.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr told reporters he was “highly entertained” during a press conference that followed the back-and-forth, and added that it was “one of the most fun days I’ve had on the job, watching the hilarity of how this story played out.”
Referring to Talarico, Carr said, “You had a Democrat candidate who understood the way that the news media works, and he took advantage of all your sort of prior conceptions to run a hoax, apparently for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks.”
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“As Jasmine Crockett herself came out yesterday afternoon and said, there was no censorship by the government here,” he added.
Some media observers are arguing James Talarico’s late-night interview controversy with Colbert helped him defeat firebrand Crockett in the Democratic Senate primary.
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“A lot of that money we got in late from Colbert went to Spanish advertising,” Chuck Rocha, an adviser to Talarico’s campaign, told the Times. The outlet reported that the Hispanic vote helped push Talarico to victory over Crockett in the end.
