James Talarico, the Democratic candidate running for senator in Texas, has spoken out after ABC pulled his sit-down with Jimmy Kimmel over FCC concerns. The interview will instead be posted to the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” YouTube channel on Thursday night.
“Government censorship should be a concern to all of us, regardless of our political party,” Talarico told MS NOW, calling the FCC’s threats against certain broadcast programs (including ABC’s “The View”) “the most dangerous form of cancel culture.”
“People at the top, powerful politicians, powerful media executives, censoring what we watch, what we read, what we say,” Talarico continued. “That, again, should be a concern to everyone who believes in the First Amendment and believes in the freedom of speech.”
He told Symone Sanders Townsend of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight” that he still has hope ABC will air the Kimmel interview across its broadcast channels. “I’m still hopeful that we can have this interview on the air,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens tonight.
Kimmel announced on his show Wednesday night that ABC had decided to preempt his chat with Talarico because of concerns about Trump’s FCC, which is led by Brendan Carr. The government agency is currently locked in a dispute with ABC over whether “The View” qualifies as a “bona fide news program” exempt from the “equal time” rule. The FCC also played a key role in Kimmel’s brief suspension in 2025 over Charlie Kirk comments.
