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Jimmy Kimmel Busts Trump Goons Censoring Interview With Dem Star

The talk show is crossing swords with Trump’s top TV goon.

Jimmy Kimmel has revealed how the Trump administration intervened to censor an interview on his late-night talk show with a rising Democratic star.

Last year, Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr used his power to get Jimmy Kimmel Live! taken off air for a week, after complaining about comments made about the MAGA reaction to the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

Now, history is repeating, with Kimmel pulling an interview with Democrat James Talarico—a regular target of President Donald Trump’s taunts—that had been due to air on Thursday night.

Talarico is running against Trump ally Ken Paxton in a U.S. Senate race in Texas. Kimmel called Paxton, the state attorney general, a “piece of human silly putty” on Wednesday’s show.

He then explained the “unusual circumstances” which meant his interview with Talarico would now only air on the show’s YouTube channel, which has over 22 million subscribers, but not on his Thursday night show on ABC, which averages around 1.8 million viewers per episode.

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Kimmel explained that, like most talk show hosts, he has interviewed political candidates from both major parties, including Trump himself in 2015 and 2016.

“At that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates,” Kimmel said of the 80-year-old. “But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is,” he added, to laughs from his audience, “something has changed.”

Kimmel said now that Trump is president, “his 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.”

The talk show host then revealed they had acquiesced to Trump, “out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense” and that the Talarico interview would not air on television.

“It will be posted on YouTube instead, it will not be on TV,” Kimmel said, prompting booing from his studio audience.

“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.”

He added, “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... because that’s the most important thing you can do.”

One comment on Kimmel’s Wednesday YouTube channel said, “Wow, the fact that James Talarico’s interview is being blocked on television tomorrow, tells me how much FEAR the GOP has of this sinking MAGA ship.”

Another posted, “They just don’t get it. The more you don’t want us to see something the more we’ll seek it out and boost Talarico right before the midterms you fools.”

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The decision follows Kimmel’s return on Tuesday from a summer break, marking his 400th show. The host said, “There are those who said we would never last this long. There are even those who used the regulatory might of the FCC to unconstitutionally try to make sure we didn’t last this long. But we did it the hard way, Brendan. And we are still here.”

During Wednesday’s show, Kimmel also found time to bait Trump over the large number of Republicans who have avoided his GOP convention in Texas, a strategic location to help push Paxton’s chances in the midterms.

The host said the Republicans who were not attending were citing “scheduling conflicts,” and added they were “also not wanting to be anywhere near him right now. They’re very nervous about the midterms and rightly so.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the FCC and ABC for comment.

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Trump attempted some jokes himself during Wednesday’s convention, as part of a rambling 106-minute speech.

The senior president called Talarico “Talafreako” and said, “He’s a weird-looking dude.”

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