It's possible that Politico hasn't been this happy since the 2020 election was "fortified."
By pretending to be censored, which did not happen according to CBS, Late Show host Stephen Colbert was able to gain more viewers than usual to his interview on YouTube with the Democrat primary candidate for senator from Texas, James Talarico. Politico briefly acknowledged the trickery involved in their Wednesday Playbook celebration by Dasha Burns and Jack Blanchard, "The Talarico moment."
...The broader FCC clampdown on talk shows is obviously real — we saw the announcement last month, and we know “The View” is already under investigation. But framing this as “the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see” is … quite a stretch. As CBS made clear in its statement yesterday, its lawyers said the interview could have run if the show had also given airtime to the other Democrats running in the contest, Rep. Jasmine Crockett and longshot candidate Ahmad Hassan. Which makes it a little harder to paint as some grand anti-Talarico plot.
So did Colbert refuse to offer equal time to Talarico's primary opponents? We didn't find the answer in Politico because they didn't bother to ask. Perhaps because it would have ruined their celebrations of Colbert pulling off a campaign stunt to obviously help Talarico.
We now join Politico's celebration of dirty politics in progress:
A (LONE) STAR IS BORN: We’re exactly one (1) day into early voting in the hottest primary contest of 2026, and already temperatures in Texas are sky-high. The decision to pull Dem Senate hopeful James Talarico’s “Late Show” interview with Stephen Colbert on Monday night put rocket boosters under his campaign at a critical moment.
The numbers are still soaring: As of this morning, the canned segment has more than 5 million YouTube views — numbers Colbert can only dream of on his actual TV show. You probably saw the graph yesterday showing Google searches of Talarico’s name spiking dramatically.
It's now at more than eight million views. An interview that would have happened with typical low numbers on the air if Colbert had simply agreed to the very reasonable request for equal time given to Talarico's opponents. Of course, such interviews for just one senatorial race would have dropped Colbert's ratings even lower than they currently are so he performed the gimmick of pretending to have been censored for purposes of publicity and then placing the interview with Talarico on YouTube.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Talarico’s campaign racked up $2.5 million in donations in the 24 hours after “the attempted censorship” of his appearance on “The Late Show,” Playbook’s Adam Wren reports.
It’s quite a haul, in a primary race that could prove pivotal when the final Senate tallies are counted on Nov. 3. But it also highlights several fascinating trends regarding the current moment in U.S. politics.
First: In years past, a broadcast network ditching your big interview on the night voting starts would have been a body blow for a state lawmaker still trying to get national recognition. But not in this era. As Donald Trump knows better than anyone, nothing grabs eyeballs and motivates voter bases these days like a sense of grievance, of being under attack from powerful forces, of leaning into the fight.
Colbert was counting on this reaction, even if Politico underlined Talarico appeared on "the night voting starts," hence the equal-time concerns. Here's more of Politico spiking the football and performing a victory dance in the end zone:
Talarico has seized his own moment, with more than a little help from Colbert — both men instantly pointing to the Trump administration for the decision to can the interview. On X, Talarico brazenly described the segment as “the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.” Within 24 hours, that single post had racked up close to 40,000 retweets and more than 150,000 likes, astronomical numbers for a humble state lawmaker from Texas.
Such is the power of this phenomenon that angry Dems now feel like they’re sticking it to Trump just by watching Talarico on “The Late Show.” “The FCC does not want you to see this! Let that sink in. And SHARE IT,” one YouTube commenter wrote. That comment alone has been liked nearly 50,000 times.
...This is 2026 — where grievance culture is the ultimate motivator and where the attention economy is all. Talarico was doubling down last night, telling a packed-out rally in Austin (per HuffPost’s Igor Bobic) that the FCC “colluded with corporate media executives at CBS” to keep his interview off air. A few hours later, he was on MS NOW, claiming the Trump administration is “trying to silence me” because “they’re worried that we are going to flip Texas.”
For a guy who keeps claiming on the campaign trail that he is a devout believer in the Bible, Talarico seems oddly to have no problem with easily breaking the Ninth Commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
But, hey, Politico is more than happy with the result of the campaign trickery so why quibble over mere hypocrisy?
