The Dana Show with Dana Loesch - Absurd Truth: Brendan Carr Joins Us To REACT To Jasmine Crockett's False Colbert Claims

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

FCC Chair Brendan Carr joins us to react to Jasmine Crockett blaming him for her not appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the confusion with the Equal Time Rule and possibly investigating The View. Meanwhile, Dana shares the stories of two Olympians, Eileen Gu and Alysa Liu, who chose different paths to represent different nations and the results proved why.Bank on Yourselfhttps://BankOnYourself.com/Dana Bank on Yourself offers tax-free retirement income, guaranteed growth, and full control of your money. Receive your free report.Humannhttps://HumanN.comGet simple, delicious wellness support when you pick up Humann’s Turmeric Chews at Sam’s Club next time you’re there and see why they’re such a fan favorite!Subscribe today and stay in the loop on all things news with The Dana Show. Follow us here for more daily clips, updates, and commentary:YoutubeFacebookInstagramXMore InfoWebsite

Dana Lashes Absurd Truth Podcast Like sands through the hourglass So are the days of the United States I'm about to show you guys One of the coolest tricks ever So you're traveling

And you didn't pack enough underwear And you're like Oh my gosh What am I going to wear tomorrow Every room has like a coffee pot thing in it Even the other coffee makers Where it brew's through All you do

Put your underwear Where you would put the coffee ground You close it, you press brew and it puts scorching hot water through it. You guys, then the hair dryer in the bathroom, you blow dryer those bad boys and you got yourself a cleaner pair of underwear to wear. I did not realize how many people already knew this hack. I learned it years ago from a friend that was a flight attendant and it's brilliant. I feel like you should be put to death if you do that kind of stuff.

nobody that's so disgusting um i've used the damn kareg machines in those rooms before i hate influencers i just hate them so bad you know there's excuse me there's also this amazing thing it's called the uh cleaning service the dry cleaning service that they have in the hotel it's actually not that expensive you're just doing a pair of britches but maybe if you can't afford the dry cleaning service then maybe just don't at a hotel at all whatsoever if you feel like you have to wash your britches in the coffee machine that other people but i also don't know why you couldn't just i don't know the bathtub is still working the shower you got hot water that comes out of the faucet yeah what are we doing

with the curing yeah the hell is that about you could also just ask for some hot water as well that's like really funny that you can do that you know with the hotels they have hot water and you can say, hey, I would like some hot water. Because I'm a gross, disgusting person that only has two pairs of britches. And I need to, because I'm such a stanky person, I need to wash them right now immediately. So I need you to bring me some soup. I mean, she just looks like, she looks like eye crust, became sentient, and developed a voice. I don't know.

I don't care if that's mean. I am so grossed out right now. Kane's horrified because Kane, like he said, uses the courage. The folks that help bring you the program and make it possible, It is the friends over at Super Beach. You guys know the Superbeats Heart Shoes and the company behind it, Human. Human was founded out of the UT Health Science Center, built on cardiovascular research about blood flow and nitric oxide, very different from other supplement brands. They're science-born, not science-ish.

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you can grab it at Sam's Club right now. They're offering $5 off, but that offer ends on February 22nd. For a limited time, the Super Beats, Harts Shoes at Sam's Club, $5 off, and this offer ends on February 22nd. Yeah, so from everything that I know, you know, the FCC potentially was the threat. And this is one of the reasons that I filed the Freedom of Speech Act of 2025. So I filed that last year, dealing with the FCC. I think I actually filed it around the time that they decided to cancel Colbert, or it was around the time of Jimmy Kimmel, one of the two.

So I actually filed a bill because what we're seeing is that they are trying to limit free speech. And we know that they also are specifically targeting journalists. They are specifically targeting those late night shows that they don't like. This is one of the dumbest things that we've ever had the misfortune of dealing with, and we're all dumber for having heard any of it. And unfortunately, they will not stop. because it's a money-making apparatus. Welcome back to the program, Dana Lash, with you. You can listen coast to coast, also follow along digitally. Joining us right now on this, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who, you know, he's been accused of banning, banning Jasmine

Crockett, banning James Talarico from being on Colbert. I mean, the way that I understand it, you know, Chairman, is that you have the power to basically control all of the airwaves. You're like a sorcerer there in D.C. But the real truth is actually a lot more nuanced. I mean, this has been established law for equal time that goes back to the 1930s. Yeah, what's so interesting about this episode? I think it's very revealing and it confirms why so many Americans simply don't trust the legacy national media outlets. I woke up on Tuesday morning and saw a tweet from one of the political candidates

in the Democrat Senate candidate, right, saying the FCC refused to air this ad. And then I saw the merchandising and saying, this is the ad Trump doesn't want you to see. this was the first that I had ever heard of it. And the media, of course, given their priors and their beliefs that Trump is terrible, they ran with that story. And then the second layer of the hoax came out. And they were saying, well, it wasn't the FCC, but it was CBS itself that wouldn't let us air it. And then an hour or two later, CBS put out of statement and said, no, we told Colbert that he could have that interview and they could air it.

They're just going to be mindful of the equal time rule. But Colbert and that political candidate apparently cooked up this entire hoax to drive clicks and And the real person they were trying to pull one over on was Jasmine Crockett because she's running against that politician. And so they wanted to amp up the views and then clicks for him. But to your point, there is this thing called the Equal Time Rule. It goes back decades and decades. And it says if you're going to have one legally qualified candidate on, you have to offer a comparable time and placement to all others. That doesn't mean that Colbert would have to interview them or have them even on that show at all.

just a broadcaster gives them comparable time and placements. That rules been on the book for a very long time. Yeah, FDR signed that, but somehow the accusation is that Trump, probably through your sorcery, was able to go back in time to 1934 and sign that instead of FDR and then have it, you know, fast forward to current era, have that applicable only strictly towards Stephen Colbert at this particular time. And that's true. I mean, being in broadcasting, even though we do a podcast and we're digital, you know, what you and I are doing right now is going across airways all over the United States.

We have hundreds of affiliates around the country. And we have to be mindful of the equal time rule, even what we do. And it's not that, you know, it's not something that FCC is forcing us to do. That's, we just, if they ask it, if there's a, if we have a candidate on within, what, 30 days towards a primary or 60 towards a general, you, you have to make sure that you're accommodating, you know, everybody that's in that race. And it seems like, sir, it seems like Stephen Colbert didn't want to have a bunch of Texas lawmakers, namely Jasmine Crockett, as you just mentioned, you know, have to deal with her on

his show as well, because ultimately that's what would have happened. Yeah, the entire purpose for Congress passing this law originally was they did not want sort of media gatekeepers in New York and Hollywood deciding the outcomes of elections. They wanted the people, the voters here, Texas, to make that decision for themselves. And so this is not a censorship regime at all. It's actually quite the contrary. This provision doesn't stop you. from having any interview, it simply says, you know, offer comparable time and placement to other people.

Now, over the years, there was an exception to the equal time rule. It was called the Bonafide News interview. If you were doing a bona fide news interview and Congress was thinking of stuff like Meet the Press and other things, we have legitimate journalists asking a wide variety of questions, offering space and time to different candidates to come on. If you were bona fide news, you didn't have to comply with it. Now, over the years, people have been misreading or overreating, F.C. cases to have that exceptions to all the rule. And they thought that every late night show, every daytime show, no matter how partisan qualifies as a bona fide news program. We've been reminding people, that's not what the law says. That's not what FCC case law says. And in the case of the

view and in the case of Colbert, they haven't made the case to the FCC that they qualify for the exception. So they should comply with the default position and offer equal time. But again, like you say, people should just do that as a matter of, you know, journalistic practice. Let's hear from a variety of people. And isn't that, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but isn't that the issue that was invoked as well when Kamala Harris was on 60 minutes and it was within the time, the period of the general election and then the Trump campaign initiated legal action in response to that and they had to accommodate him somehow? I mean, that's the exact same rule that they relied upon, yes? Yeah, that's right. So Kamala Harris was snuck on Saturday Night Live. Oh, Saturday before the

Tuesday election. And the reason why that one actually wasn't controversial is because the has previously said expressly, Saturday Night Live is not a bonafide news program. So Comcast knew that they were sort of caught red-handed there and they quickly turned around and offered Trump comparable time and placement, according to their theory of the case. And also, it was Hung Kao, who was running for Senate in Virginia because they had Tim Kain on that same approach. So they made at least some effort to give them some comparable time and place. That's the exact same issue that we're seeing here as well. You're right. I just think it's unfortunate that they decided to take a decision that they made, not an actual ban, and fabulous in a fabulous way, manifest this, like,

crazy narrative that it's you and POTUS that we're doing this when it's really them, and they were banking on the American people not knowing. And a lot of podcasters who've never had to deal with, you know, federal regulation of public airwaves. Yeah, it's a total indictment of the fake news media. I mean, what happened here was obvious to everybody that wasn't suffering from a terminal case of Trump derangement syndrome. It reminds you that meme where someone takes a stick and pokes it through the front spokes of their bicycle wheel and they stumble onto the ground and they start blaming other people for it. It was a total self-stri-sand effect moment. To some extent, hats off to them for realizing that the media would fall for it and give them extra views and extra clicks. But, you know, Frank is not that complicated because, you know, the legacy media just, you know, falls for this sort of stuff.

And when they were corrected, you know, there was no real correction. There was no real holding of accountable to the people that perpetrated the hoax. They didn't feel bad that they were used. They loved it. I mean, the fake news media ate up that story like slop when they were told it wasn't true. They did not care. They were so happy to have played a small role in that hoax. And to me, that was just the most revealing part of all of this.

Yes. Yes. very revealing. Last quick question for you, because you mentioned the view. I know that there's an investigation into the view underway over a possible violation of that equal time requirement. What can you tell us about that? Because I know, for what I understand, Crockett and Tala Rica, we're both on the program. So that means that others in the race now also have to be afforded, you know, comparable time, as you had said. Whenever you have any legally qualified candidate on, the first you have to do is as soon as practical or as possible, that's what the rule itself says.

Put a filing in your online political file. All broadcast stations have that. That simply says if we had this political candidate on, they got this many minutes and seconds, that's the notice that allows other legally qualified qualified candidates to potentially seek out their comparable time. So with the view in Tala Rico's interview there, they didn't make that filing. It appears that they're claiming that they're a bona fide news program, that the view is a bona fide news program. And so we are taking a look at that because at this point they have not made the case to establish that. So we are running that down as an enforcement matter. We have an inquiry underway and we'll see where that goes.

I like how just very gently you stated that. You know, we're going to look and see, but the evidence there doesn't really support the Bonafide News program. I think a lot of us would agree with that. Yeah, that's interesting that they did not file that. I did not know that. I'm learning about that talking to you. Well, this is very interesting. We're going to continue watching it.

But I appreciate your fight on this as well and correcting the record for everybody out there because there were some people questioning this. And we had to correct some folks. Like, no, no, no. We know that it's a very, you know, big time digital era. But these are the regulations over public airwaves. And all of these are public airwaves. So people say it's anachronistic. We shouldn't do it.

There's so many different ways to get the news and information out there. That's fine by me. Go to Congress, pass the law. But you can also make the argument the other way. because you can stream, because you can cable, because you can podcast, if you want to use the unique medium of broadcast, you got to comply with the unique rules of broadcast. So that's what we're going to do. There you go. Brennan Carr with the FCC, always appreciate it, sir. Thank you so much. Have a good weekend. Thanks for time.

Yeah, I can be with you. Thanks. You too. We have more to come, folks, as well. And he made a really good point there, because with digital, you can just, you know, go digitally and do all of that. But there are a lot of people who did not understand. And you've got to think about this, too. You know, with the equal time, the very good point that he made is, you don't want New York and you don't want like LA and D.C. to be able to control and just handpick whom they want. And remember where they're located and the types of ideological, the types of ideology that staffed those entities, right? I mean, all of those, all of the companies that run these public airwaves are leftists. I mean, without exception, even in

conservative-leaning companies, the only one that exists, you still have leftists there and you, you're always going to run up against bias. And it was put into a, to prevent that. So without it, you're going back to all of the same left, completely controlling the airwaves that we all, because of public airwaves and because of the structure of broadcasting and you have, you know, government channels, et cetera, your taxes do contribute to, you know, a portion of that. Clearly not as much as defense, et cetera. But, you know, it's still a taxpayer-funded thing. And they're all our airwaves. It's the public. airwaves, it's something that we all have access to and we all can control. So there's a little bit of a

differentiation there. So there are those regulations that they have to abide by. He raised two and a half million dollars, Telerico. It's probably more about it. Yeah, and Jasmine Crockett is fit to be tied because she wanted to be the vehicle through which they did this and now it's going to be this guy. So, and he's played it. Him, he came from that Beto Orr-Wark John Ossoff factory where they all look the same. Look at them. They all look the same. they dress the same? It's crazy. Are you being lied to about your retirement?

I mean, the advice sounds familiar. Max out your 401k and your IRA and hand your life savings to Wall Street and just hope that the market cooperates. If that were the only way, why do so many people then risk outliving their savings? Why does the inventor of the 401K call it a monster that should be destroyed? The time has come to hear the truth. Bank on yourself is a retirement plan alternative that, provides guaranteed predictable growth and reliable retirement income.

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That's bankon yourself.com slash Dana. And now all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's Quick Five. So Eric Dane, star of Gray's Anatomy and Euphoria, he's been on a few other things, passed away at age 53. He was battling ALS. And goodness, did you know that he also, Johnny Depp, allowed him to live in one of his homes rent-free towards the end of his life in one of his houses in

L.A. That is really cool that he did that. But 53 years old, he had a really big battle with ALS that was very public, but he's passed away. So not to be like morbid or macabre or macabre, actually, as we would say. Can't know someone's. That starts over the rule of three. So now two other celebrities got to go. It's the rule. That's not my rule. It's the universe's rule. Stolen ambulance rammed into the DHS building in Utah. Somebody stole an ambulance and rammed it right into the Department of Homeland Security in Idaho last night. They said to Utah, but it's Idaho. Local police said someone stole it from St. Luke's, drove it right into the North Portico building that was leased to DHS. They also dumped gasoline in and around the ambulance but couldn't ignite the

accelerant before law enforcement arrived and then the suspect totally ran away. The gas cans were stored in vegetation near the building. So they're thinking, a lot of people are referring to it as terrorism. It kind of seems that way. I mean, it seems not like an accident that someone's pouring gasoline all over everything. But here we are. So, yeah, that's kind of the, it does sort of, I mean, DHS, it seems very, very, you know, I don't believe in coincidences.

tourists are they are they are tying piles of trash to New York City's Brooklyn Bridge's disgusting trend this is absolutely gross people have been trying tying trash like in Paris they would do the keys the key bridge now apparently these people are leaving everything from underwear to really gross prophylactics and other things and yeah they said that they're leaving it all over ever they're tying it to the bridge and it looks looks that right there that Juan is showing you is a straight up wall of germs. You know what? That's how you get the bat flu. Right there. Right there. That kind of stuff is how bat flu. That's how it happens, Kane. We all know this. This is how it also can start.

Let's see. Flames erupt from Brooklyn manholes. This is like Ghostbusters. Cars explode and hundreds evacuated because Democrat run sewage systems don't seem to be working very well. In addition to Democrat mayors who want to jack up everybody's taxes, they had to evacuate 200 people the other night. Residents were terrified. Cars were blown up. Insane. Stick with us. I still haven't been watching the Olympics because it's all bread and circus. Although I saw that a dog ran during one event and I feel like that dog needs the gold medal. And then we made the women's hockey team, we beat Canada. I love beating Canada and stuff. And our dudes played later today. And then Lindsey Vaughn smashed her leg up and now she's made of metal. She had a, yeah, her x-rays

on that. Lorraine's got a piece that we're going to have a, up here momentarily over at chapter and verse that gets into some of the crazier aspects of the Olympics. But one of the things that fascinates me the most is this tale between Eileen Gou and Alyssa Liu. And we talked a little bit about it because Eileen Gou has been, you know, she's been really like such a victim. Oh my gosh. She's just going to go cry into her Chinese millions. She's just been really crashing out of the Olympics. She fell for a third time. And this was as, you know, as you guys have seen all of the backlash as to her decision to represent China over the United States. And she won a pair of silver so far.

She was looking to defend her title in the women's half pipe final. And then she had a bad start. Then she had a bad fall. And she clipped the top of the pipe and it knocked her left ski off. And it was just a mess. So she hasn't been having a good time And she keeps saying well it's just the pressure of you know two countries No you just got the one country just got the one

And in the meantime She I mean she fell at a freestyle event Then you have Alyssa Lou who Won a gold medal for the United States Ending the 24 year weight That we've had For a female figure skater to win the gold

And there's goo on the left and Alyssa Liu, the figure skater on the right. Now, Lou has been approached by China for a while. I mean, they had Chinese spies that targeted her. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the story. We talked about it before. So Alyssa Liu, it was really sketchy for her. She's the one on the right. She's the one that has the striped hair. She and her father were targeted by Chinese spies. So Alyssa Liu's dad is one of, he was one of the people who protested in Tiananmen Square. And he, you know, they left China, came to the United States. She's a proud American. She's been doing great figure skating. So back this was in 2022, the Beijing Olympics, she and her dad were targeted by Chinese spies because they were trying to recruit her to do exactly what Eileen Gou is doing, representing China. And Alyssa Liu did not want to do that. She did not, she wanted to compete for America. She did not want to represent

China. And so they targeted her. They targeted her. Her dad, Arthur, it was a part of a spine operation before the 22 Winter Olympics in Beijing. So Arthur was in his 20s, Arthur Liu when he left and he was a legitimate political refugee. He was protesting their communist government. He was there at the part of the Tiananmen Square massacres. He settled in the San Francisco area, went to law school, paid for himself to go to law school. And then in October of 21, this is crazy. He warned about this. He was contacted by the FBI and warned about this scheme. So the FBI was aware of it. He was unaware of it at the time. he just thought you know his daughter's a figure skater

they're getting ready to go and compete and they'll okay yeah they got to go to china they have to all right so they got some of that and then the FBI was the one that reached out to him and said yeah we need to let you know of something that's pretty sketchy the Chinese are spying on you and his daughter at the time Alyssa she was 16 at the time so this was in 2022 then he had a guy that called him he said it started to make sense because he had a that called him one year before, months before the Olympics, and that was in November of 21. And he was claiming to be an official with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

And he was asking for Arthur and Alyssa's passport numbers. That's kind of weird, isn't it? So this guy's calling out of the blue and he's asking for their passport numbers. that's, you know, sketchy. Arthur would not provide them. And he told him, he's like, I'm going to call my contact at Team USA. And apparently, even before then, he had been approached by this guy named Matthew Ziberis, who was later arrested in March of 2022 on charges that included conspiring to commit

interstate harassment and, looking at my notes, criminal use of, of a means of identification. So he had been hired by the CCP that Zerubis guy to spy on members of, that people who were in international sports and to spy on this family, like people who were Chinese, who were from China and left China. And he said that, oh, no, no, the only reason that I was doing it, it was a preparedness check ahead of the, of travel for COVID. Well, that's a nice cover, right?

there was a lot of stuff that was done in the name of COVID. So he was acting like he was just some middleman that was there to make sure their passports were all up to snuff, you know, because of COVID. But Arthur refused. And they threatened Arthur and his daughter, well, we're not going to let you travel then. You're not going to be able to travel anywhere if you don't do this. And so they had to have the FBI in the literal actual U.S. government helped them at the time. So that obviously, understandably, that made them a little nervous about going. to Beijing because China had been making all these overtures to Alyssa Liu about competing for them

and she didn't want to do it and her dad. I mean, do you think her dad is actually would even like allow that to happen? I mean, the guy, again, was part of Tiananmen Square protest, all of this stuff left China. No way. You know, he, and I'm sure he didn't clearly, as we know now raise a daughter that would be okay with competing for China. So they went to Beijing in 2020. and they actually had additional security as a result of all of this stuff. And that was per the FBI. The FBI was even saying,

you're going to need, you know, you're going to need more security. And she had to be escorted at all times by two security detail. At all times, she had to be escorted.

So she's there at Olympic Village and she wants to go get a snack. She has to have a two-person detail with her at all times. her dad had to have security. They had to have all of this other extra security stuff that they didn't even actually make public everything, understandably, in place,

because there were these, what started out as overtures to the family turned into like pretty much relentless harassment. Like if you're not going to compete for China and we can't convince you, then maybe we can bully you. And the, through this investigation and after the FBI got involved,

they found out that the, CCP was even spying on his daughters, all his daughter's social media. Because she's, you know, she's a figure skating star. She's very good at what she does. And she's, you know, she won a gold medal for crying not loud for women's freestyle. So they were watching her, all of her Instagram posts. And apparently the CCP found one of her posts that she had made where she was critical of China for jailing the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province, and they apparently had circulated that amongst the ranks of the CCP. And at one point, when she was at the games, and again, this is even still with a two-person

detail, there was a guy that had tried approaching her when she was at the cafeteria. It was in the evening. She had already competed. She was at the cafeteria, and it was after the free skate event. and she was approached by a guy at the cafeteria who followed her and was harassing her, trying to get her to come to his hotel, et cetera, and their detail had to handle it. So she was, that was very tricky. And that was a risk for her to go over there and compete in Beijing.

And she did it. And she went through all of that. And very proudly, and as spoken about it before, wanted to compete for the United States. it is impossible to not compare her with Eileen Gu who very eagerly bashed this country, the country that raised her, that she benefited from all of our freedoms, and she acts like, you know,

she doesn't know enough about the situation, for instance, in the Jingjing province with the Uyghurs or anything else, but then she can weigh in on ice and weigh in on issues here. She's not educated enough to talk about the issues, the political issues in the country that she's representing at the Olympics, but then she can turn around in the next breath and start

bashing the United States for simply enforcing immigration or something like that. I mean, that's the, the word is that she got millions and millions of dollars to go and, defect and basically become a CCP traitor. I just, I mean, it's a geopolitical foe. And I know that we engage in certain behaviors to keep up the niceties and keep up this veneer of civilization. But I also think that the optics of this are a lot stronger than our federal government is giving a credit for. Because you have to think about all the kids that are watching her. Oh, she's competing for China now.

But also, some of the Chinese are apparently making fun of her on social media because she has just been face planting. and they're questioning whether or not the investment, they're publicly questioning the investment of into her and bringing her over. And they're bashing her a lot. That's like been growing on Chinese social media. It kind of makes me wonder if it's not like a CCP sciop as a way to put, you know, some distance between, it's just very interesting. So here you have Alyssa Liu, who's been absolutely upstaging everybody.

And she's proud to compete for the United States. and she actually went through it. Eileen Goose pretending that she's suffering all of this stress. Oh my goodness. It's so much stress. And she's got more money than all of them because of her deal with China. And here you had Alyssa Goo, or Alyssa Liu, who is literally targeted by the very government that Eileen Goose butt kissing. Targeted while she was competing in the 2022 Olympics and had to have an enhanced security detail.

You want to talk about stress? Talk about being a 16-year-old who was aware. that they're being targeted by your geopolitical foe and that there is a legitimate security issue and you have to have enhanced security wherever you go. That's real stress. Eileen Goose seems like a complete attention-seeking drama queen. And these people, that's usually the tactic that's used. They're drama queens because it absolves them of the responsibility of offering any other kind of anything else that's important. Just unbelievable. What a comparison, right? What an absolute comparison and Alyssa Liu is still rocking it and apparently she's a Cardinals fan because

as we all know that is God's team so yeah it's an arguable it's just facts are fact man thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Dana Lash's absurd truth podcast if you haven't already make sure to hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts Spotify or wherever you get your podcast