We've been covering the incredible narrative about the interview that one of the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in Texas, James Talarico, had with Stephen Colbert.
CBS told "The Late Show" that if they ran the Talarico interview, they needed to address the equal time rule requirements, and the network provided the show with various options for the other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30).
READ MORE: Colbert Demands Exemption From Equal-Time Rule in Talarico-Crockett Kerfuffle
Crockett Weighs in on the Colbert/Talarico Controversy - This Promises to Get Juicy
Now, Talarico has not only doubled down, claiming he was "banned" by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), which is demonstrably false, but he's bragging that his campaign got $2.5 million because of his claims. This takes some kind of naked gall, even for a Democrat.
BREAKING: Our campaign raised $2.5 million in 24 hours after the FCC banned our Colbert interview. pic.twitter.com/g6v4gzGAhS
— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) February 18, 2026
We have what CBS said. We have what Colbert said. And yet this guy is still trying to put this out there.
Unfortunately, some Democrats apparently are falling for this. Suddenly, his chances are going up in the Kalshi prediction market.
New from @ForecasterEnten:
— Jaron Zhou (@ZhouJaron) February 18, 2026
Following the Colbert interview, Talarico has jumped from 61% to 75% chance to win the primary on Kalshi.
This is a stark contrast to the polling in this race, which has it very close. https://t.co/vHi7LURDo3 pic.twitter.com/RbMtxDTP5i
The reality of the polls in Texas is that things are still close. But this gives Talarico a huge boost right as early voting starts. Funny how that works.
The head of the FCC, Brendan Carr, called out Talarico's claims, too.
"When I step back and look at the entire arc of the news story yesterday, I was highly entertained,” Carr told reporters. “It was probably one of the most fun days I’ve had on the job, watching the hilarity of how this story played out."
“Anybody that’s not suffering from a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome could see right away how it was going to play out,” he contended. “You had a Democrat candidate who understands the way the news media works, and he took advantage of all of [the news media’s] prior conceptions to run a hoax—apparently for the purpose of raising money and getting clicks. And the news media played right into it.” [....]
“Yesterday was a perfect encapsulation of why the American people have more trust in gas station sushi than they do in the national news media,” Carr said. “This was very plainly an effort ginned up to get clicks and to raise money, and you guys [in the media] ate it up like slop.”
Carr pointed out how Crockett had "herself come out" and pointed out how there was "no censorship by the government here."
He noted that this was CBS lawyers advising "The Late Show" and the program producers' decision not to go along with the equal time options that CBS proposed for Crockett or other candidates.
“But for some reason they chose not to do this,” the FCC chief said.
“The whole idea here is more speech, not less,” he asserted. “You can have more candidates on.”
So I can predict the next part of the saga. Talarico will try to use Carr's statement to raise more money.
But the thing about this is that while this is getting him more attention, if Talarico were to actually win the primary and have to run in the general, he's going to face Texans not easily taken in by lies. He's dug himself a deeper hole, on top of his far-left positions. All the Republican candidate has to do is run an ad about what he said being demonstrably false. The slipperiness is not going to go over well.
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