Trump’s Attempt to Silence Stephen Colbert and James Talarico Was a Huge Mistake

Another stupid, corrupt abuse of power.

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Donald Trump and his MAGA cronies in this administration simply cannot help themselves when they see an opportunity to abuse the power of the federal government to silence their opposition.

Last night on CBS, Stephen Colbert was supposed to interview Texas Senate candidate James Talarico—one of the best Democratic candidates in the country this year. And Brendan Carr at the FCC and Bari Weiss at CBS stepped in and told Colbert he couldn’t interview Talarico. Couldn’t talk about him. Couldn’t show an image of him. Couldn’t even mention what was happening on air.

And like an employee who’s two weeks from quitting and finally out of fucks to give, Stephen Colbert said: screw that.

He opened his show by calling out CBS and the FCC for trying to suppress a Democrat who dares stand up to Donald Trump. He called it what it is—blatant abuse of government power to control what he can and cannot say on his own show because they don’t like his politics or his comedy. And then he had James Talarico on anyway.

They couldn’t air it on CBS. So they put it on social media.

And in doing that, they created ten times more attention for the interview than it would’ve gotten if they’d just let it happen.

It was ethically wrong. It was politically brain-dead. It was an aggressively stupid move by the Trump administration, Bari Weiss, and CBS—to think they could silence someone as effective as Talarico, or tell someone as tough as Colbert what he can and cannot do with his own platform.

And it’s not new.

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They tried to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air over a joke. They arrested Don Lemon a few weeks ago. They’ve tried to sic a grand jury on six Democratic members of Congress over a video they didn’t like. Time and again, they treat the Constitution like it’s a subscription service: available for them, revoked for everyone else.

The First Amendment is for them.

The Second Amendment is for them.

The Constitution is for them.

For the rest of us? Apparently optional.

That’s the pattern. It’s what authoritarians do. They try to squash the press. They try to intimidate critics. The most dangerous part isn’t even the overreach. It’s the attempt to make the overreach feel normal.

Strip away the historical baggage and look at the textbook definition, and this is what scholars describe as fascistic behavior — not in a World War II sense, but in structure. It’s hostility toward dissent. It’s using state power to pressure media institutions. It’s treating political opposition as something to silence rather than debate. I know that word is deeply controversial among Trump supporters. But when government officials lean on regulators and corporations to suppress a critic because they don’t like his politics, that’s not normal partisan hardball. That’s a governing style that rejects pluralism and punishes opposition. The goal is simple: make people scared to speak. Scared to protest. Scared to push back.

We can’t be.

Because every single time they pull this shit, it backfires. And if they can do it to a late-night host on a major network, they can do it to anyone with a platform smaller and fewer lawyers.

In this case, they just handed James Talarico more attention than he could’ve bought with a seven-figure ad buy. And they did it weeks before a primary.

Let’s be honest about why they targeted him. If Colbert had booked a Republican—or even a Democrat not running in one of the most competitive races in the country—no one would’ve blinked. But they’re freaking out about Texas.

Texas is roughly Trump +10. But we’re heading into an environment that could be anywhere from Democrats +8 to +15 nationally, because people are pissed about the economy. Talarico is exactly the kind of Democrat who can exploit that. He’s won in Republican areas before. He can reach across the aisle. He’s one of the most impressive communicators in the party.

And yes, he’s running against Jasmine Crockett, who is impressive in her own right. Texas voters will decide their nominee in a few weeks. But this stunt? It boosted Talarico.

It reinforced his core message—that the billionaire class is trying to suppress anyone who challenges them.

One of my favorite lines from him came at a town hall recently, when someone accused him of pushing “class warfare” for going after the Epstein class. He said: “We already have class warfare in this country. Billionaires are waging war on the rest of us. We just need to tell the truth about it.”

That’s why they’re scared.

Meanwhile, Republicans have created their own circus. Three candidates. Longtime incumbent John Cornyn bleeding support. A lieutenant governor in full MAGA cosplay. Another MAGA clone. The base wants the loudest, angriest option, not the one most likely to win a general election.

And when Trump had a chance to tip the scales toward the safer pick? Silence. The man has an opinion on everything except the race that actually matters.

So here’s the setup: a Republican +10 state in a cycle where Republicans will be deeply unpopular, a Democratic candidate who can win crossover voters, and a potential GOP nominee who could depress turnout.

That’s how you get a perfect storm.

And instead of playing it smart, they panic. They abuse power. They overreach. Like a rabid dog that’s been starved for days, they lunge at the first thing they see without thinking about the consequences.

Now Talarico raises a ton of money off this. That money funds ads. Those ads spread his message. And he inches closer.

So sure—thank you.

I’d prefer they not abuse federal power at all. But if they’re going to do it, at least keep doing it in spectacularly stupid ways. Because that’s the defining feature of this administration: it’s usually the most corrupt option available—and somehow also the dumbest.

We might actually be saved by their incompetence.

They don’t know how to wield power strategically. They don’t know how to keep the public on their side. That’s why Trump’s approval rating keeps sinking into the mid-30s.

We haven’t hit bottom yet. People are still waking up. It’s taken longer than I’d like—but I’ll take them whenever they arrive.

In moments like this, we have to get louder.

Support Talarico or don’t—that’s your call. But every time Trump gets away with something small, he wants something bigger. It’s “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” politics (shoutout to my kiddo for making me read this 10,000 times when he was a toddler.) You give him an inch, he takes a mile. Then another. Then another.

You cannot give them anything.

When Don Lemon tells Trump to fuck off after being arrested? That’s progress. When Stephen Colbert defies CBS and airs the interview anyway? That’s solidarity.

That’s a line in the sand.

So go find yours.

Figure out where you’re willing to say “enough.” Find a way to be useful. Keep pushing back.

Don’t let the bastards grind you down.