Watch the Colbert Interview He Says CBS Told Him He Couldn’t Air

Not only did Stephen Colbert seemingly go against his network’s instructions to not talk about a recent interview he completed with Texas State Representative James Talarico on Monday night, but the CBS host also made that interview readily available to watch.

To tee up his conversation with Talarico, Colbert welcomed the representative “to the ‘Late Show’ YouTube page,” and immediately noted that he usually just welcomes guests to the show, not to an online exclusive. But, in this case, the FCC has been pushing against Talarico’s TV appearances. So, the late night host’s first question to Talarico was blunt: “Do you mean to cause trouble?”

“I think that Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas,” Talarico replied, earning a massive cheer from the audience. “And Stephen, this is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read. And this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top.”

“They went after ‘The View’ because I went on there. They went after Jimmy Kimmel for telling a joke they didn’t like,” Talarico continued. “They went after you, for telling the truth about Paramount’s bribe to Donald Trump. Corporate media executives are selling out the First Amendment to curry favor with corrupt politicians, and a threat to any of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights.”

Colbert quickly “fact checked” Talarico and reminded him that CBS maintains that their decision to cancel “The Late Show” was purely financial, earning a giggle from Talarico.

As the interview continued, the pair discussed Talarico’s religion, with the lawmaker calling out “the religious right” as a political movement that convinced people that “two issues that aren’t mentioned in the Bible” are actually the biggest political issues. Talarico also said that, in his state, “there is a backlash growing to the extremism and the corruption in our politics” that he thinks is powering a potential flip for the state.

Beyond Talarico’s comments at the top of the interview, he didn’t actually mention Trump specifically, except for saying that the president clearly “has taken note” that “we’re building something really special in Texas.”

You can watch Colbert’s full interview with Rep. James Talarico in the video above.

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