The Harry Sisson Show - Trump Just SHUT DOWN Colbert's Show AGAIN...

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Harry Sisson breaks down Trump's latest attempt to silence Stephen Colbert and others who don't like him.

All right, folks, I have an urgent story for you, something that you absolutely need to know about, and every American needs to see. Donald Trump is once again silencing his critics, clamping down on the First Amendment, clamping down on late night hosts who dare to criticize him. And this all took place just last night. So on his show, Stephen Colbert was supposed to be interviewing Democrat James Talarico. Now, James Talarico, as you probably know, is running for the Senate in Texas. It's a very competitive. state this year because of how badly Donald Trump is doing. That's how awful things are for him right now. And Texas is not usually a state where you see competitive numbers for Democrats. So Trump is panicking.

That's the rundown. So what happened just minutes before they were supposed to have their interview? CBS called up Stephen Colbert. They had their lawyers and said, you cannot interview him. If you do, the FCC will come after us. The Trump administration will come after us. You have to cancel the interview. It is blatant censorship coming from the Trump regime, and we cannot let it slide. So I'm going to get into the story with you right now. We'll talk about the meat of things. Before I do any of that, though, please make sure to subscribe down below, drop a like on the video, comment. Let me know what you think about this story.

Donald Trump cannot censor what we talk about here. We're going to continue to cover the stories that he does not want you to see. If you're on Apple or Spotify, please make sure to rate the show five stars and follow along. It goes an incredibly long way. Without further ado, let's get into it. So we're seeing this take place in real time. It happened just last night. But let's be clear, you know this, I know this.

This is not the first time that Donald Trump's administration has done something like this. And you know it. I mean, you know, this year, or I should say last year, we saw Donald Trump's FCC chair, Brendan Carr, take Kimmel off the air. After Kimmel made that comment surrounding Charlie Kirk's passing and the Republicans completely misrepresented what he said, they decided to take Kimmel off the air. And Brendan Carr was not subtle in making it known that this was about politics. In an interview with MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson, Brendan Carr said to Kimmel and ABC and Disney for taking Kimmel off the air, quote, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. There's actions we can take on licensed broadcasters.

It's long past the time that Comcast and Disney say, we're not going to run Kimmel anymore because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC. So Brendan Carr was saying, hey Disney, hey ABC, if you don't take Kimmel off the air, we're going to revoke all of your licenses. We're going to impose fines on you because we don't like you. We don't like the politics you guys have. We don't like that you don't advocate for Donald Trump. So if you don't take Kimmel off the air, we're going to come after you. And what do you know? Kimmel came off the air for around a week. He eventually came back up. But they weren't really hiding that this was an overtly political thing. And matter of fact,

when Brendan Carr was asked about Kimmel's show being taken off the air, he sent this gif to journalist Brian Stelter, who works at CNN. So a celebration gift, gift, I should say, from the office. He was very happy about it, and Donald Trump celebrated it on Truth Social as well. Again, they weren't hiding the fact that this was political, that they were trying to take down Kimmel for political reasons. I mean, he practically just said it in this interview with Benny Johnson. And as you know, that's not the only time. They also got Colbert's show canceled broadly, but fast forward to now, this instance, and it gets even worse. This is an article from the New York Times, Colbert doesn't give an FCC about calling out CBS. I love it. And so this is Stephen Colbert's words exactly

as he said it on the show for why the interview was canceled. Quote, Talarico 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. 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. So he couldn't even talk about CBS's decision and how it was coming from the FCC. And because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this. Because of course Colbert is going to do that. He really has nothing to lose. He has three months left of his show. He's going out with a bang. And I love him for that. I think he's fantastic and I'm really going to be sad to see him go. But he added, quote,

you might have heard of this thing called the equal time rule. Okay, it's an FCC rule that applies only to radio and broadcast television, not cable or streaming. That says if a show has a candidate on during an election, they have to have all of that candidate's opponents on as well. It's the FCC's most time honored rule right after no nipples at the Super Bowl. There's long been an exemption for this rule, however, Colbert continued, an exception for news interviews and talk show interviews with politicians. Now, that's crucial because how else were voters supposed to know back in 92 that Bill Clinton sucked at saxophone? Great point. Great point, Stephen Colbert. But this exemption does exist. That's why you see people like Kimmel or Colbert or whoever it might be

interviewing Democratic candidates and not having their Republican counterpart on or not having every single Democratic candidate in a primary on. That would make no sense. And this exemption has existed for years. It also exists for Republican channels as well. You don't see all these Democratic candidates going on their shows, right? But on January 21st of this year, a letter was released by FCC chairman at Smug Bowlington. Brendan Carr, in this letter, Carr said he was, that's just so funny. Carr said he was thinking about dropping the exception for talk shows because he said some of them were, quote, motivated by partisan purposes, which is ironic because, as we just looked at, Brendan Carr is very clearly motivated by partisan purposes. And Colbert made that exact point. Well, sir, you're chairman of the SEC, so FCC you. Because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself. Sir, you smelt it because you dealt it. You are Dutch ovening America's airwaves. Let's just call this what it is. Donald Trump's administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV. because all Trump does is watch TV.

He's like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diaper. So Colbert, not holding back on the FCC, not holding back on CBS. Again, brave. He has nothing to lose. He's going out with a bang. And he's absolutely right. I mean, let's call this what it is.

This is not CBS's attorneys having an issue or being nervous about what might happen as a result of this interview. This came directly from the FCC. CBS's lawyers didn't want to deal with it so they can't the interview. It is censorship 101. This is the type of stuff you see in authoritarian regimes all around the country. Donald Trump

is nervous at the Texas Senate race. He knows that a Democrat could win that state this year. Whoever the Democrat might be in that primary. I love Jasmine Crockett. I love James Tilarico. Whoever it might be, Donald Trump knows it could go the opposite way. And so

what does he try to do? He censors. He censors. He clamps down on free speech. It is disgusting. And matter of fact, James Tilarico actually posted a clip from the interview that never was, saying this is the interview Donald Trump didn't want you to see. His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried that we're about to flip Texas. So take a look at this short clip of the interview, which you can actually find in full on Stephen Colbert's YouTube channel. They just couldn't air it on CBS. So watch. Now, here's the thing. I don't usually

say this to a guest, but if people are watching this right now, it's because they found us online on YouTube. I did an act of the show that's on tonight explaining why. It's not the first time you've caused some drama. FCC opening probe into the view after appearance by Tala Rico. Do you mean to cause trouble? I do. I think that Donald Trump is worried that we're about to flip Texas.

I think it's a good point by Tala Rico. I think it's the right point by Tala Rico. It is censorship 101. So please, please share this story with everyone you know. We have to stand up to this stuff. We cannot let this be swept under the rug. We cannot just move on from blatant censorship. That's what we're looking at.

We've got to fight for our rights. So I will leave the video there. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to subscribe down below. Drop a like on the video, comment. Let me know what you think about this story. If you're on Apple or Spotify, please make sure to rate the show five stars and follow along. It goes an incredibly long way.

Have an amazing rest of your day. We will talk soon. on.