Jimmy Kimmel Pulls a Colbert: Lies About ‘FCC Threats’ Forcing Him to Air Talarico Interview on YouTube, Not ABC

Seven months after now-canceled Late Show host Stephen Colbert lied to America about his interview with U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D-TX) being “censored” by the Trump administration, Disney’s late-night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel is peddling the same lies.

“I’ll be interviewing James Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances,”Jimmy Kimmel told his audience on Wednesday. “For a lot of years, for the whole 20 plus years of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all. Just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arseno, etc., etc. I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself.”

“I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015,” Kimmel continued. “And at that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show host interviewing candidates. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016. But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed.”

Kimmel said “Now that he is president, his [Federal Communications Commission] FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.”

“And so out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Terico will not air on television,” Kimmel continued. “It will be posted on YouTube instead. It will not be on TV. So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel where you will see it in its entirety.”

“And thank goodness we have that because in the America we live in right now, that is the best that we can do until November, of course. Make sure you’re registered to vote. By the way, because that’s the most important thing you can do,” Kimmel said.

Jimmy Kimmel is lying. The FCC didn’t threaten him or his lowly rated show, or his network ABC or his affiliates or local stations. Kimmel lied when he said the “unusual circumstance” of his Talarico interview airing on YouTube and not on TV is due to the Trump administration’s objection to “traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings […] they don’t like.”

It’s a steaming pile of bullshit. And it was bullshit when Stephen Colbert attempted to pass it off as truth to his lowly rated audience earlier this year. It’s why CBS released a statement contradicting Colbert’s lies about his show being threatened by Trump, triggering his Talarico interview to air on YouTube instead of CBS.

The issue is fairness. Jimmy Kimmel did interview Donald Trump in 2016, in May, just before Trump clinched the Republican nomination. Kimmel did not interview Trump again that election cycle. Kimmel did interview Hillary Clinton during the general election, on August 22nd. By then, she was the Democrat’s presidential nominee. Kimmel hosting Clinton on ABC during the general election and not having Trump on was a clear violation of federal law — the FCC’s equal-time rule for candidates. Kimmel gave time to presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 but not presidential nominee Trump, violating the law.

Kimmel danced around those facts during the history lesson portion of his monologue on Wednesday night, bloviating about “traditional editorial decisions.”

As of this reporting, ABC hasn’t released a statement in response to Kimmel’s monologue. I suspect one is coming soon. When it came to Colbert, CBS needed only one day to factcheck the host who they canceled just three months later.

What’s more? Kimmel is gifting Talarico the same in-kind contribution Colbert gave the Texas Democrat earlier this year. The Colbert-Talarico YouTube interview garnered nearly 10 millions views after the astroturfed controversy Colbert created with lies about nonexistent Trump White House threats to censor the sit-down.

At the time, Colbert’s favoritism for Talarico shortchanged the other two Democrats running to clinch the Texas U.S. Senate nomination: Rep. Jasmine Crockett and businessman Ahmad Hassan. In July, Crockett said she was running in “a racist race.” Crockett has since declined to campaign alongside James Talarico.

Jimmy Kimmel could have avoided this mess by inviting Ken Paxton (who Kimmel called “a piece of human Silly Putty”) on his show. But Kimmel won’t do that because he’s a deeply committed Democrat who has spent years helping Democrats raise millions to win elections.

Kimmel can’t keep himself out of headline hell this week. On Tuesday, a bombshell report said ABC will be ending Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2027. The network has since denied the claims.

Disney and the FCC are already embroiled in a major legal battle over the federal agency’s initiation of an early license renewal process of the eight TV stations Disney owns and operates. Disney is arguing that its daytime talk show The View is a news program and is exempt from federal equal time rules regulating airtime for political candidates during elections. The Trump administration is also investigating Disney over allegations it is violating civil rights laws through the use of race-based DEI hiring and promotion policies.

In July, FCC chairman Brendan Carr said ABC’s decision to not carry President Trump’s live speech on election security will factor into its investigation regarding the network’s broadcast license.