Brendan Carr blasted Stephen Colbert and Texas State Representative James Talarico as fake “victims” over their interview drama with CBS, suggesting the duo greatly exaggerated the situation.
The FCC chairman addressed the controversy on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday, where he slammed “The Late Show” situation as manufactured drama created by Colbert in order to garner “attention and clicks” for Talarico’s campaign.
“Well, President Trump has been so ahead of the curve on so many issues, as you noted, on the economy, on border security and perhaps nowhere else when he called out the legacy media for being fake news,” Carr told host Laura Ingraham. “And yesterday the American people saw it on full display. It’s why people have more trust and faith in gas station sushi today than they do in the legacy news media.”
He continued: “This was Democrat-on-Democrat violence. CBS was very clear that Colbert could run the interview with that political candidate. They just said you may have to comply with equal time, which would’ve meant potentially giving airtime to [Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)] and another candidate. But, instead of doing that, they claimed that they were victims. This was all about a political candidate getting attention and clicks and the news media ran with it like lemmings.”
When asked if Carr would’ve launched a probe into the interview if it had aired, as Colbert previously suggested, the FCC chairman said he would “enforce” the equal-time rules.
“But complying would mean more airtime for more Democrats to say whatever it is that they want,” Carr said. “The equal-time rule at its core is about stopping legacy media from picking winners and losers in elections.”
Carr’s comments come hours after he confirmed the agency was investigating “The View” for potentially violating its equal-time rule over its interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Talarico.
🚨 “FAKE NEWS” — ON FULL DISPLAY
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) February 19, 2026
“People have more trust and faith in gas station sushi today than they do in the legacy news media.”@BrendanCarrFCC: “President Trump was ahead of the curve when he called it fake news — and yesterday the American people saw it on full… pic.twitter.com/WQB2azJfrZ
“The FCC has an enforcement action underway on that, and we’re taking a look at it,” Carr told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. Carr expressed a similar sentiment on Fox News, adding, “We’ve started enforcement proceedings, taking a look at that. And, again, we’re going to hold broadcasters accountable.”
Talarico appeared on the program’s Feb. 2 episode, weeks after his opponent, Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, made an appearance. In fact, it was this drama that seemingly sparked the tension between CBS and Colbert, who said he moved his interview with Talarico to YouTube after pressure from the network’s lawyers amid FCC concerns.
“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 on Monday. “Then 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. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
Talarico later weighed in on Tuesday, sharing on MS NOW, “It should be troubling to all of us, regardless of our political affiliations or our political beliefs, that the most powerful people in the country, the most powerful politicians and the most powerful corporate executives are working together to sell out the First Amendment, to sell out our freedom of speech, in order to protect their own power and their own wealth.”
However, CBS responded to Colbert’s claims with their own statement, defending that “‘The Late Show’ was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico.”
“The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” the statement continued. “‘The Late Show’ decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”
Yet, Colbert hit back during Tuesday evening’s broadcast for “The Late Show,” where he claimed that “every word of [his] script last night was approved by CBS’ lawyers.”
