Dem
52
Ties
2
GOP
46
The federal government is, of course, forbidden from censoring political speech. Nearly all presidents have honored that rather key civil right—it is, after all, in the very first sentence of the Bill of Rights, which is probably instructive—even if they had to grit their teeth while doing it. The exceptions to the general rule, prior to the current administration, were usually presidents who led the U.S. in times of war, and who clamped down on dissent as a wartime measure.
Donald Trump and his underlings are, by and large, not willing to grit their teeth and honor one of Americans' most important rights. Maybe Trump tells himself that the U.S. is at war with Iran, and so this is the same thing as Abraham Lincoln stifling dissent during the Civil War, or Woodrow Wilson doing so during World War I. Or, maybe Trump tells himself that he and his political party are at war with "the libs," and so this is the same thing as... well, there isn't a great presidential analogue here. But it does bring to mind Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.
Trump can't exactly send troops to shut down unfriendly media outlets, at least not yet, so we're not quite at the level of Stalin's Russia. However, he and his flunkies, most obviously Brendan Carr at the FCC, have learned how to use the levers of power to achieve a similar result. Readers will recall that Carr, with Trump's blessing, flexed his muscles so as to force Stephen Colbert to move a planned interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico from the over-the-air broadcast to the program's YouTube channel. Well, Carr and Trump have done it again, this time forcing the hated Jimmy Kimmel to move a Talarico interview from over-the-air to YouTube.
In case readers are wondering how this was accomplished, Carr and the FCC threatened to yank the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates that broadcast the interview, with the claim that they are violating the FCC's "equal time rule." This is nonsense, and could only possibly be valid if Republican Ken Paxton asked for an interview and was denied. Even then, the argument is still shaky, as interviews with political candidates have generally been considered news, and thus not subject to equal-time requirements. That said, many local stations simply cannot afford to fight the mighty federal government in court, even if they are ultimately going to win. Further, many local stations don't want to alienate viewers by taking sides against Trump. So, Kimmel and his team bowed to this reality, and agreed to move the interview to the Internet.
For anyone who would like to watch the interview, here it is:
It is 21 minutes. If you're going to click and watch any of the videos we've linked so far, this should really be the one. It's far less dreary than either the Vance speech or the Trump speech. Shorter, too!
It's a fairly standard political interview, with the caveat that Talarico is pretty charismatic, and so interviews better than, say... well, Ken Paxton. In any event, we remain mystified about the administration's ongoing denial of the Streisand Effect. If Carr & Co. had just left it alone, the interview would have been seen by Kimmel's normal audience (1.8 million people or so), and that would be that. But by turning it into something notorious, it is guaranteed to be seen by an audience two or three or four times as large. It's already up to 1.5 million views on YouTube, and it's also on Instagram, eX-Twitter and other platforms. At the same time, everyone now knows that the administration is scared to death of Talarico. Not a great look, especially for a president who sold himself as tough and macho.
And Trump & Co. definitely ARE scared of Talarico. Again, this is not even the first time they've tried to muzzle a Talarico interview. Further, and we saved this for this item, J.D. Vance's speech last night had a bizarro digression in which he railed against Talarico. That digression ended with some very awkward musing about what kinds of pornography Talarico enjoys. It was strongly implied that he likes trans porn, and possibly trans child porn, and that either way it's sick and wrong.
We don't entirely understand why Talarico has become a white whale for Trump—far, far more so than, say, Sherrod Brown in Ohio or Roy Cooper in North Carolina or Jon Ossoff in Georgia. Maybe it is because a loss in Texas would be extra-embarrassing for Trump, given that it's such a red state, and given that Trump cut the more electable Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) off at the knees. Maybe it is because letting the Democrats get a foothold in Texas would be disastrous for the GOP. Maybe it is because Talarico is young and educated and well-liked by people, and so is everything Trump is not. The only thing we know for sure is that professional politicians have access to polling data that we do not. That Trump, Vance, et al. are trying so hard to undermine Talarico strongly suggests they know something. (Z)