The Charlie Kirk Show - February 20, 2026


Stephen Colbert's FCC Hoax and Virginia's Democrat Power Grab


Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

178.67685

Word count

7,022

Sentence count

545

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Glenn Steuervant, a Virginia State Senator, joins the show to talk about the Democratic Redistricting process in Virginia and how they are trying to take control of the levers of power in the state through an unconstitutional redistricting process.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.
00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.
00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.
00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.
00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful.
00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.
00:00:26.000 You got to stop sending your kids to college.
00:00:27.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.
00:00:31.000 Go start a Turning Point USA college chapter.
00:00:33.000 Go start a Turning Point USA High School chapter.
00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.
00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.
00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.
00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life.
00:00:43.000 And I encourage you to do the same.
00:00:45.000 Here I am.
00:00:46.000 Lord, use me.
00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:49.000 Here we go.
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00:01:09.000 All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:11.000 Hour two is underway.
00:01:12.000 We are going to keep our eyes on Virginia.
00:01:14.000 Why?
00:01:15.000 Because Virginia is now the Democrat playbook.
00:01:18.000 It's the Democrat playbook.
00:01:20.000 We used to talk about the playbook in Colorado, how they turned Colorado blue.
00:01:23.000 Well, they're doing the same thing in Virginia, even though it was only a D plus six state in the last presidential election.
00:01:30.000 They're going full commie there.
00:01:31.000 And here to help us break down what's happening with the redistricting fight in Virginia is Glenn Steuervant, Virginia State Senator.
00:01:39.000 Welcome to the show, Glenn.
00:01:40.000 Hey, guys.
00:01:41.000 Thanks for having me.
00:01:42.000 Yeah, absolutely.
00:01:43.000 Blake, why don't you break down the stakes here?
00:01:45.000 Of course, of course.
00:01:46.000 So just to remind people what's going on in Virginia, they ran as affordability-focused moderates, and now they've won.
00:01:52.000 They want to redistrict the state from, I believe it's six to five, Democrat-Republican right now, and they want to make it 10 to 1 in a state that is blue, but not by that big of a margin.
00:02:05.000 And so you can look up their maps, and it's a bunch of snakes extending out of D.C. because they all need their chunk of Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, the big blue area.
00:02:16.000 But Glenn, we wanted to have you on specifically, among other things, we just want people to be aware of how far Democrats are willing to go to pass this sort of thing.
00:02:25.000 The understanding I've been given is it's essentially flagrantly unconstitutional what they are doing, the way they're going about this.
00:02:33.000 They're getting the courts to sign the Supreme Court to sign off on things that are incredibly suspect, basically for the sake of pure power politics.
00:02:42.000 Can you lay that out for our listeners?
00:02:44.000 Yeah, sure.
00:02:45.000 So five years ago, we had a referendum on the ballot to go to a nonpartisan redistricting commission to take gerrymandering out of the hands of legislators and to create this nonpartisan redistricting commission.
00:02:58.000 And people can debate the pros and cons of that method, but that's what we have had for the past five years in Virginia and is in our Constitution.
00:03:07.000 The Democrats brought us back in in special session right around Halloween of last year and began jamming through this amendment to the amendment, which would take gerrymandering back, give it back to the legislature for the drawing of the 11 congressional maps in Virginia.
00:03:28.000 As you mentioned, we currently have a pretty evenly divided congressional delegation with six Democrats and five Republicans.
00:03:37.000 That lines up pretty well with how Virginia voted in the 2024 presidential election.
00:03:42.000 I think Kamala got 55 and President Trump got 45.
00:03:48.000 So our current congressional maps match up with how Virginia votes in a statewide federal presidential election.
00:03:57.000 They began advancing this constitutional amendment process, though, as I said, around Halloween.
00:04:04.000 But the early voting in Virginia, we have some of the longest early voting of any state in the entire country.
00:04:10.000 We've got 45 days of early voting.
00:04:12.000 Early voting had already begun in our gubernatorial election leading up to this past November.
00:04:21.000 And the Virginia Constitution requires that there be essentially two elections before a constitutional amendment can be sent to the voters as a referendum.
00:04:36.000 And because Democrats had started this process after early voting had already started and a million Virginians had already voted, they didn't have the ability to assess their state house candidates based on where they stood on this amendment.
00:04:51.000 So long story short, Democrats have continued to strong arm that amendment process.
00:04:56.000 We filed a lawsuit and we prevailed in the trial court.
00:05:02.000 The judge, trial judge, found that Democrats had violated the Constitution and several provisions of Virginia law and how they went about doing this.
00:05:12.000 And of course, Democrats who are represented by the Mark Elias law firm, they appealed that to the Virginia Supreme Court.
00:05:19.000 And then we just found out last Friday that the Virginia Supreme Court is taking the appeal.
00:05:24.000 So they're going to address the legal arguments.
00:05:27.000 But what they said is that they're not going to hear the case and decide it until after the referendum vote, which is currently scheduled for April 21st.
00:05:38.000 So I want to pause there, Glenn, and just emphasize that for our listeners, that this referendum, a lower court judge has said it is illegal and it should not proceed, but they're going to let it go ahead anyway before ruling on whether it's legal or not.
00:05:54.000 There's this insanity to it because you just know once, let's say it passes, which they'll do everything in their power to pass it, then the Supreme Court has this excuse.
00:06:02.000 Well, we can't roll back this referendum and overturn the will of the voters.
00:06:06.000 And I want to also read the text of the ballot question.
00:06:09.000 This is what their Secretary of State has apparently decided as a fair ballot question to go from 6-5 to 10-1.
00:06:16.000 This is the text.
00:06:17.000 Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census.
00:06:36.000 Should we pass this law to restore fairness?
00:06:38.000 Don't you love fairness, don't you?
00:06:40.000 Yeah.
00:06:41.000 Well, so that was ballot language that passed the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and that our new governor, Governor Abigail Spanberger, signed.
00:06:51.000 And what is timely about that is we filed a second lawsuit.
00:06:56.000 So once the Virginia Supreme Court said, we're going to take up this appeal, but we're not going to decide it until after the referendum happens, which as you mentioned, is putting a lot of pressure to just accept the outcome regardless of the legal merits.
00:07:12.000 But a second lawsuit was filed and they are actually in a hearing as we speak in Taswell County.
00:07:20.000 One of the issues in that new lawsuit is that ballot language and that it's obviously just a total joke and not a reasonable representation of what this constitutional amendment would do.
00:07:32.000 So we will see if the Supreme Court of Virginia hopefully does the right thing if they get another bite at the apple with if we're successful in this trial court again and it goes up on appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.
00:07:46.000 I think most fair-minded people, regardless of where you stand on it, recognize that the judicial branch exists for cases like this.
00:07:56.000 If you have a legislature that is breaking the rules, not playing by the playbook, violating the Constitution and the role of law, the whole reason we have a Supreme Court is to address issues like that.
00:08:08.000 And when they punt a case like this, it's very concerning.
00:08:13.000 Glenn, what is the ideological balance of that Supreme Court?
00:08:16.000 Is there any indication?
00:08:18.000 So in Virginia, the legislature, the General Assembly, appoints all of our judges from the Supreme Court on down.
00:08:27.000 And so I think most people would look at it, not that the judges have any particular ideology, but there are four that have been appointed under Republican legislatures and three that have been appointed under Democrat legislatures.
00:08:44.000 And so it's, again, concerning.
00:08:47.000 Just I'm a lawyer myself in my day job, in addition to serving in the state Senate.
00:08:52.000 And the fact that we have a trial court that said this is unlawful.
00:08:58.000 It should not proceed.
00:09:00.000 The Supreme Court has recognized that it's at least worthy of hearing the appeal, but to not hear it before the referendum doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
00:09:09.000 Well, thank you.
00:09:09.000 Yeah.
00:09:10.000 And we just wanted to highlight this because this shows, this is how far they're willing to go.
00:09:14.000 They're very much stretching the limits, breaking the limits of what their Constitution says.
00:09:18.000 Meanwhile, we've seen our Republicans in Indiana with no constitutional barriers, just didn't want to do their maps, didn't feel like it, made them feel icky.
00:09:28.000 These are the stakes, and they're doing this along with all the other radical bills they're doing in Virginia.
00:09:33.000 Thank you, Senator Sturdivant.
00:09:34.000 We're going to do our best to support you.
00:09:36.000 If you're in Virginia, make sure you vote in this referendum.
00:09:39.000 That's right.
00:09:40.000 Thank you for coming on again.
00:09:41.000 Thanks, guys.
00:09:44.000 Listen, I'm going to be honest.
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00:10:51.000 All right, elections have consequences.
00:10:53.000 They certainly do.
00:10:55.000 So just to kind of finalize the point on our Virginia discussion, where the Virginia Democrats are showing just how far they're willing to go and exercise their power, even with just a D plus six, Boeing has announced it's moving its defense HQ from Virginia after Governor Spamberger's election.
00:11:15.000 Okay, so that's a huge loss to the local economy.
00:11:19.000 Top defense contractor announces major move weeks after Dem Governor takes office.
00:11:23.000 It's a win for the heartland.
00:11:25.000 It says the company said it is moving its multi-billion dollar investment in the world's most advanced combat aircraft production facilities to St. Louis.
00:11:36.000 So listen, you're going to enact anti-business tax regulatory burdens on companies.
00:11:43.000 They're going to move.
00:11:44.000 And that's not the only institution that is thinking about moving.
00:11:51.000 And we just had to cover this story because Charlie loves Chicago.
00:11:54.000 Charlie's from northern suburbs of Chicago and Wheeling, Illinois.
00:11:57.000 Grew up a big Bears fan.
00:11:59.000 And it looks like the Bears, the Chicago Bears, the Chicago Bears, are becoming the Gary Bears.
00:12:08.000 They could be moving.
00:12:09.000 I mean, I think it's still ongoing.
00:12:11.000 Nothing's been decided yet, but more and more likely that they will be moving to northern Indiana, which is a remarkable turn of events if that was going to happen.
00:12:22.000 It's about an hour and a half drive for some people to get to the base.
00:12:27.000 It would be a half hour from Soldier Field with no traffic.
00:12:31.000 27 miles from Soldier Field, which is just a remarkable thing.
00:12:37.000 Let's go ahead and play Mayor Brandon Johnson, the communist, talking about this.
00:12:41.000 559.
00:12:42.000 Is my face straight?
00:12:44.000 Okay.
00:12:45.000 All right.
00:12:46.000 Let me keep a straight face here.
00:12:49.000 The Bears belong in the city of Chicago.
00:12:51.000 The Chicago Bears belong in the city of Chicago, right?
00:12:54.000 And I've said repeatedly that the door is always open for conversations, you know, and, you know, Kevin Warren did call me yesterday.
00:13:06.000 We didn't get a chance to connect.
00:13:07.000 You know, and I still firmly believe that their best position is in Chicago.
00:13:14.000 And it's evidence.
00:13:15.000 The evidence is clearly speaking for itself.
00:13:18.000 We've got old Charlie Tweet.
00:13:20.000 He was a big long Bears fan.
00:13:21.000 You can throw up, you cycle through those.
00:13:23.000 You know, Bears, that's what you get for poor management and terrible coaching.
00:13:27.000 Cutler got what he deserved.
00:13:29.000 What an awful call.
00:13:30.000 Hashtag Bears.
00:13:31.000 Fantasy advice.
00:13:32.000 Find the team playing the Bears.
00:13:34.000 Trade for their defense and start them. 0.78
00:13:36.000 He was a long-suffering Chicago Bears fan.
00:13:39.000 And so I, of course, am a Packers fan.
00:13:41.000 I'm very torn here because on the one hand, I am a Packers fan.
00:13:44.000 So I enjoy seeing the Bears lose.
00:13:47.000 I enjoy seeing them get humiliated a little.
00:13:50.000 But at the same time, it feels weird to say.
00:13:53.000 I think the mayor's correct.
00:13:54.000 The Chicago Bears, they should play in Chicago.
00:13:58.000 They should at least play in Illinois.
00:13:59.000 There's something fundamentally messed up when a team is not even in the correct state of who they supposedly represent.
00:14:08.000 There's something way off about that.
00:14:10.000 I feel the same about the San Francisco 49ers.
00:14:13.000 Yes.
00:14:13.000 They're playing in Santa Clara, which is a massive drive.
00:14:16.000 It's so far away from San Francisco, but we still call them the San Francisco 49ers.
00:14:20.000 At least at least the New England Patriots aren't the Boston Patriots anymore.
00:14:24.000 Did you know that their stadium is literally closer to Providence, Rhode Island, a different major city than it is to Boston?
00:14:30.000 It's that far out of the city.
00:14:33.000 I think it's an unfortunate thing.
00:14:36.000 Listen, though, but this is what happens when you have an incompetent local government that can't put business first, can't put its own citizens first.
00:14:45.000 They had bought land in Chicago years ago, planning to develop that land and upgrade from Soldier Field.
00:14:51.000 Now, we could have lots of commentary around the fact that, you know, should local governments be supporting their local teams?
00:15:01.000 Should it be this sort of, it's an intermix of private public funds.
00:15:07.000 It never pays off to spend as much as these cities on what is a private for-profit endeavor in every case, except the Green Bay Packers.
00:15:17.000 It's a billionaire, a mega-billionaire who owns these teams, and their values have gone up massively over time, in large parts of local government.
00:15:26.000 Huge subsidies.
00:15:27.000 You'll get cities that will spend a billion dollars, $2 billion to build a stadium that is then, all the profits go to a private actor.
00:15:35.000 And then in 20 years, they say, oh, it's out of date.
00:15:38.000 We need to blow it up again.
00:15:39.000 Give me another $2 billion, or I'm going to move the team to San Antonio.
00:15:43.000 But this is just the competition that they have to deal with.
00:15:45.000 Mike Braun, the governor of Indiana, is saying, come in.
00:15:48.000 Come over to Indiana.
00:15:50.000 We want your business. 0.63
00:15:51.000 They're passing the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed an amendment bill, Senate Bill 27, creating a framework for Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority that would enable bonding, land acquisition, and financing for a new stadium.
00:16:04.000 So they're rolling out the red carpet for these.
00:16:06.000 Meanwhile, Chicago's like, we want you to stay, but only so much.
00:16:13.000 And by the way, we sort of resent you because you're rich and we're not going to roll out the red carpet.
00:16:17.000 The problem is, yeah, you could say that it's gross, these public-private partnerships, but there's always somebody willing to take your business and they're willing to roll out the red carpet.
00:16:26.000 So, listen, if you want to compete, you got to compete.
00:16:28.000 This is the problem with Democrats in general, they're not willing to think business first.
00:16:33.000 But above all, I think above all, it's a sign of how we can't, in cities, you just can't build anything anymore.
00:16:39.000 To build a city, it's the endless legal, regulatory, environmental roadblocks.
00:16:44.000 And then, if you finally do build it, it takes longer than expected.
00:16:47.000 It costs two or three times more than it should.
00:16:50.000 Every stadium, look them up.
00:16:52.000 Every stadium in inflation-adjusted dollars, something built in 1960 that cost $5 million then, and it would cost $50 million today.
00:17:00.000 And then the replacement stadium will seat fewer people, and it will cost $3 billion.
00:17:05.000 Well, so it's not finalized yet.
00:17:06.000 More due diligence, negotiations, and approvals are needed, but insiders are saying it's close to an inevitability that the Chicago Bears are moving to Indiana.
00:17:18.000 Just take out the R and you'll get how this really is.
00:17:21.000 The Gary Bears.
00:17:23.000 The Gary Bears, like the Care Bears.
00:17:24.000 But we have one more sports thing that we should flash.
00:17:26.000 We should hit it.
00:17:27.000 By the way, they say Illinois, it's an inevitability if Illinois does not counter strongly.
00:17:34.000 So, balls in your court.
00:17:36.000 You are on offense if you want it.
00:17:38.000 Meanwhile, this is a quick 60-second blitz.
00:17:40.000 ESPN is getting rid of America's pastime.
00:17:42.000 This would Paul Charlie too.
00:17:44.000 He wasn't as big of a baseball fan as football.
00:17:46.000 Core basketball.
00:17:46.000 He loved the Cubs.
00:17:47.000 He loved the Cubs.
00:17:48.000 He loved the Cubs, and he loved America, so he'd love America's game.
00:17:51.000 So ESPN is nixing Sunday night baseball, and they are replacing it with Women's Sports Sundays, which will spotlight matches in the WNBA and the NWSL.
00:18:03.000 I don't know what that is, but I assume it's women's softball, and I refuse to Google it.
00:18:08.000 And I have a better nickname for it, which is ESPN's lowest ratings ever Sunday.
00:18:14.000 It's just a fascinating turn of events that ESPN would voluntarily put itself in a position to lose money and ratings and viewers.
00:18:23.000 Okay, listen, in fairness, the WNBA has the ratings have improved.
00:18:30.000 But that is not an excuse to get rid of America's pastime.
00:18:33.000 Andrew, would you rather find a dime on the sidewalk or have your local NWSL team win the championship?
00:18:41.000 I would rather find a dime on the sidewalk.
00:18:43.000 The answer is: I don't know if we have an NWSL team.
00:18:46.000 Yes, it's the right answer.
00:18:48.000 Here's the thing: the ESPN used to be appointment viewing for young men.
00:18:54.000 You would watch it in the mornings, sports center.
00:18:56.000 You would watch it on the weekends on a rainy Saturday.
00:18:59.000 And now you're just getting like feminism drivel. 1.00
00:19:02.000 And it's unfortunate for all of us.
00:19:04.000 It's unfortunate for the country.
00:19:07.000 Candles were lit on Bondi Beach by families, by children, by people of faith to celebrate a festival of light, a festival from Bible times, one that Jesus himself celebrated.
00:19:18.000 People gathered with hope, seeking unity and comfort in tradition.
00:19:21.000 But instead of light, there was darkness, violence, fear, hatred showing itself at a time meant for prayer and rejoicing.
00:19:29.000 Times like this remind us that even with the ceasefire in Israel, Jewish people are being targeted simply because of their faith.
00:19:36.000 And times like this remind us why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews exists to stand in the gap, providing safety and security to God's people.
00:19:45.000 The fellowship brings together Christians and Jews to be a light to suffering Jews in Israel, the former Soviet Union, or wherever the needs are greatest.
00:19:53.000 Together, we can make a real difference in the lives of those who need hope the most.
00:19:57.000 Your gift today will help provide the security that God's people so desperately need.
00:20:01.000 Visit urgentifcj.org.
00:20:03.000 That's one word, urgentifcj.org, or call now at 866-338-IFCJ.
00:20:10.000 That's 866-338-4325.
00:20:17.000 Without further ado, Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, joins us now.
00:20:21.000 Brendan, this is a, I think if the average person watching at home, this has been a very confusing story that they've seen play out.
00:20:29.000 Seems like James Talrico is getting the benefit of it.
00:20:31.000 He's raising all this money off of it.
00:20:34.000 So here's the allegation I want you to confirm or deny its veracity.
00:20:38.000 The FCC, strong-armed CBS, said you cannot have James Talrico on the air at Colbert or else the way they summarize it, they basically just like they pull the gun and they're like, you can't have him on the air.
00:20:51.000 Exactly.
00:20:52.000 You guys are the mean bullies saying Colbert can't have James Talrico on the air.
00:20:56.000 What is true and what is fiction?
00:20:59.000 Well, look, as soon as I found out that Talrico is beyond, I went down to the bowels of the FCC, the Media Bureau, I found the dump button, I pushed it, and I said, these are MAGA airwaves now.
00:21:08.000 I can't run this on here.
00:21:11.000 No, the reality is I woke up Tuesday morning and I saw on social media that the FCC had allegedly refused to air an interview.
00:21:19.000 And this has been just so amazing to watch in terms of why everyday Americans have lost so much trust in the legitimacy of the legacy media.
00:21:29.000 So the claim was made by a politician that the FC refused to air an interview, which simply did not happen.
00:21:36.000 And then the claim was, well, it was CBS that refused to air the interview.
00:21:40.000 And then CBS came out and said, no, again, that didn't happen.
00:21:43.000 All we said was we provided guidance, CBS claims, to how they could do the interview on broadcast TV and comply with all appropriate regulations.
00:21:51.000 But instead, you saw Colbert and Tellerico do that meme where you take a stick and poke it in your own front spokes of your bicycle fall down and claim that they have been the victims.
00:22:00.000 And the reason this worked is because they knew that the predisposition of the legacy media would be that they would eat this up.
00:22:07.000 And they did.
00:22:08.000 They eat it up like slop.
00:22:10.000 And it ended up boomeranging on them.
00:22:11.000 The real issue here is this is Dem on Dem violence.
00:22:14.000 This is one politician in a Dem primary trying to get a leg up and clicks up and donations up as commercial to another Democrat.
00:22:22.000 So this is Demon Dem violence that they're just trying to merchandise as having something to do with Trump or the FCC.
00:22:27.000 And again, it had zero to do with us.
00:22:29.000 I learned about this completely, totally after the fact.
00:22:32.000 That's amazing.
00:22:33.000 You found out about it on Twitter, like so many people.
00:22:36.000 So, okay, this is the way I understand it.
00:22:37.000 And again, confirm or deny.
00:22:39.000 This only applies to, at this point, at this point in the calendar, because we're in primary season, Dem versus Dem.
00:22:45.000 So if the equal time rule is basically that James Talrico goes on, well, then Colbert has to at least extend an invitation to what's her name?
00:22:58.000 Jasmine Crockett.
00:23:00.000 And that's all that this says.
00:23:01.000 So you just at least have to invite her on equal time.
00:23:03.000 Is that essentially right?
00:23:05.000 You're not alleging the FCC is not telling CBS and CBS is not telling Colbert that they need to go have John Cornyn and Paxton on as equal time.
00:23:14.000 It's just relevant to the Democrat primary.
00:23:18.000 So if you step back, broadcast TV, broadcast radio is fundamentally different than any other form of distribution of program.
00:23:18.000 That's essentially right.
00:23:26.000 It's different than online.
00:23:27.000 It's different than YouTube.
00:23:29.000 It's different than cable.
00:23:30.000 If you have a broadcast license, there's special, unique things you have to do because you've got the license for free.
00:23:35.000 It's a valuable public resource, and the government is excluding other people.
00:23:39.000 So they're excluding other people, which means it's a public trustee model.
00:23:42.000 You need to look out for the interests of everybody.
00:23:45.000 Okay, that's the baseline.
00:23:46.000 Then there was a particular rule, a statute actually, that Congress passed that said if you're going to have a legally qualified candidate on the air, you have to, to your point, extend an offer to all other legally qualified candidates.
00:23:58.000 Doesn't need to be the same program, doesn't need to be the same host.
00:24:00.000 If for some reason Colbert doesn't want to have Crockett on, he doesn't have to do that.
00:24:04.000 It's just at some point, they've got to offer a comparable time.
00:24:07.000 That's the baseline.
00:24:08.000 Now, there's an exception to that rule.
00:24:10.000 And the exception is if you are what's defined in the statute as a bona fide news program.
00:24:15.000 If you are a bona fide news program, meaning I guess not fake news, then you don't need to comply with equal time.
00:24:22.000 And the idea there was Congress was thinking about, you know, meet the press and other sort of hard-hitting journalistic shows where the hosts weren't trying to put a thumb on the scale for one particular candidate or one particular party.
00:24:33.000 And over the years, the FCC issued decisions that people read as effectively having the exceptions swallow the rule, meaning anything that goes on on broadcast TV, whether it's daytime, nighttime, is itself bona fide news and doesn't have to comply.
00:24:45.000 What we've told people is: no, that's not the law.
00:24:48.000 Follow the law.
00:24:49.000 If you haven't established that you're bona fide news, give people equal time.
00:24:52.000 But to your point, Colbert did not have to have anyone else on that program.
00:24:56.000 He could have run it.
00:24:57.000 And all you have to do is put a file, a filing in your public file, which broadcasters have, that said, we allowed airtime for this candidate.
00:25:04.000 If there's another candidate out there, come talk to us and let's see if we can work something out.
00:25:08.000 That's all they would have been required to do.
00:25:10.000 Well, they are turning it into like World War III over here.
00:25:14.000 You guys are the biggest, baddest bullies.
00:25:16.000 So let's go ahead.
00:25:17.000 This is what's funny to me, too, is that you've got, you know, Mr. Potato Man, Brian Stelter chiming in.
00:25:23.000 You've got Jen Saki, and they're all parroting this hoax.
00:25:28.000 It's amazing.
00:25:28.000 507.
00:25:29.000 This is Brian Stelter.
00:25:30.000 Put Tallerico's tweet on screen.
00:25:32.000 He said the FCC banned our Colbert interview.
00:25:34.000 And he's wrong about that.
00:25:35.000 The FCC did not ban the interview.
00:25:37.000 And that's what is actually so interesting about this.
00:25:40.000 It's about the impression, the possibility of interference, causing the networks to possibly self-censor.
00:25:47.000 And you got Colbert, big hissy fit. 1.00
00:25:51.000 508. You know who is not one of my guests tonight?
00:25:54.000 That's Texas State Representative James Tallarico.
00:25:59.000 He 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.
00:26:09.000 And it looks like Tallrico, to you, your point, Mr. Chairman, that he's taking advantage of this.
00:26:16.000 515. FCC opening probe into the view after appearance by Tallarico.
00:26:23.000 Do you mean to cause trouble?
00:26:27.000 I think that Donald Trump is worried that we're about to flip taxes.
00:26:37.000 So he's raised millions off that.
00:26:39.000 What you just saw was actually they posted it to YouTube instead.
00:26:42.000 I guess like six million people have tuned in.
00:26:44.000 I mean, it's boomeranged very well for Tallrico, but you said this is Dem on Dem violence, Brendan.
00:26:50.000 And the one person that's really upset is Jasmine Crockett.
00:26:54.000 VAGA operative.
00:26:55.000 Yeah, VAGA operative.
00:26:57.000 She's actually the one calling, you know, BS on all this.
00:27:01.000 Again, so what is that part that they said, the FCC probe into the view?
00:27:05.000 Can you explain what that was about, that allegation?
00:27:08.000 There's a separate episode where the view, which is somewhat like Disney, did have Tallerico on the broadcast airwaves.
00:27:14.000 And Disney has not established that that program is a bona fide news program.
00:27:21.000 We've begun an enforcement proceeding, enforcement actions into the view, because if they are not bona fide news, again, we don't think they've established that at this point, then they would needed to have offered, and frankly, they could still offer equal opportunity to the other candidates, including Jasmine Crockett.
00:27:39.000 This was, yeah, look, this was a, I don't think it was a sophisticated play because you just have to understand the biases of the fake news media in order to run this.
00:27:47.000 But, you know, Tallarico effectively self-streisand affected this one.
00:27:51.000 So, you know, hats off to him.
00:27:52.000 But yeah, if I was Crockett, I'd be mad.
00:27:54.000 In fact, Crockett came out the day that this happened and said this wasn't FCC censorship.
00:27:58.000 This was Colbert and Tallarico deciding not to have her on the program for reasons that you'll have to ask them.
00:28:04.000 And this is the key.
00:28:06.000 This is essentially why the rule is important, Brendan, this equal time, because what you have instead, you don't have the voice of the people.
00:28:12.000 You have elites at these networks that have basically put their thumb on the scale and said, we want Tyrico.
00:28:20.000 We think he can beat whether it's Cornyn or Paxton.
00:28:22.000 We think he's the guy to beat them.
00:28:24.000 And we're going to prop this guy.
00:28:26.000 They're very good at these operas.
00:28:27.000 This is an elite gatekeeping in the old school model.
00:28:30.000 That's the whole point of the rule was that Congress came in and said, we don't want media elites, media gatekeepers deciding the outcomes of primary or elections.
00:28:38.000 We want the people to do it.
00:28:39.000 We want the people of Texas to make their mind up without unlawful interference from media gatekeepers.
00:28:45.000 The whole reason that the rule was in place.
00:28:47.000 Now, big picture, I think that is worth asking.
00:28:49.000 You say that is Congress's intent, but this does date to when there were two, three network television outlets, some radio outlets, and that's what media was.
00:28:58.000 Today, we have shows like this one.
00:29:00.000 We have infinite podcasts, everything on social media.
00:29:04.000 Do you think there's a case to be made?
00:29:05.000 This is sort of an obsolete standard that it infringes a little bit on freedom of speech.
00:29:11.000 And there's so many ways to get your message out there now.
00:29:14.000 What do you make of that overall?
00:29:15.000 There's a lot of reasonable people that say there's such a diversity of mechanisms to get your perspectives out there that we don't need those types of regulations.
00:29:23.000 I guess I would say two things.
00:29:24.000 One, it almost cuts the other way because there's so many ways that you can get the message out, YouTube, podcasts, streaming, social media, that if you want to use that one medium that has just a unique set of rules, that you should do it because it isn't really a constraint on you because you can go somewhere else if you don't want to abide by the broadcast regulations.
00:29:43.000 I guess the second point I'd make is that if people want to do that, then they can go to Congress and they can change the law.
00:29:48.000 But, you know, my job at this point is to enforce in a fair and balanced way the laws passed by Congress.
00:29:54.000 And that's what we're going to be doing.
00:29:56.000 Brendan, thank you for separating fact from fiction in this, I call it the Colbert hoax because it's a complete, I mean, it's been a ratings boom for him.
00:30:04.000 And by the way, YouTube is 6 million views or something is what I said.
00:30:08.000 I didn't watch it.
00:30:09.000 But anyways, Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, thank you for making the time and helping us out understand the Colbert hoax.
00:30:16.000 I'm sure there'll be plenty more in the future.
00:30:18.000 Yeah, good to see you guys.
00:30:19.000 Thanks.
00:30:21.000 Hi, folks.
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00:31:20.000 So we have been pounding these Olympians, rightfully so.
00:31:24.000 They are, some of them have just really disgraced the country.
00:31:28.000 But we only thought it was fair to contrast the losers with the winners.
00:31:34.000 And in this case, it's actually true.
00:31:36.000 The hockey team just beat, I believe, Sweden last night, I believe, and they're going on, but Blake is telling me that Blake is telling me that the Canadian team is stacked and it's going to be we're playing Slovakia.
00:31:48.000 Hopefully we have the advantage over them, but if we win, and assuming Canada wins, we face them in the gold medal match, and they are being described as the greatest team ever assembled.
00:31:56.000 I'm curious, though, if the, yeah, we, geez, Canada beat France 10-2.
00:32:03.000 But I mean, who's in France?
00:32:05.000 I mean, like, what players do they have in the United States?
00:32:06.000 There's lots of people in France.
00:32:08.000 No, as far as hockey players.
00:32:09.000 I'm sure they have players of some type.
00:32:12.000 But there's a clip that's going viral, Quinn Hughes, and we wanted to play it because, you know, in the spirit of equal time that we just had with Brendan Carr from the FCC, we want to give equal time to the people that are actually honoring our country and doing it the right way.
00:32:27.000 So God bless Quinn Hughes.
00:32:29.000 He had some great things to say.
00:32:30.000 577.
00:32:32.000 Hell of a game out there.
00:32:33.000 You took down their game winner.
00:32:35.000 I mean, what did that feel like?
00:32:36.000 Yeah, just a relief.
00:32:38.000 Just really enjoying being here with this group and the guys and, you know, trying to extend it as long as I can.
00:32:44.000 Right on.
00:32:44.000 And then USA flags all over the place.
00:32:46.000 You can hear the chants.
00:32:47.000 What's that atmosphere like?
00:32:48.000 Yeah, it's special.
00:32:49.000 I mean, you know, I love the U.S. and it's the greatest country in the world.
00:32:55.000 So happy to represent it here with these guys.
00:32:57.000 And, you know, it's really special.
00:33:00.000 That's awesome.
00:33:01.000 It's the greatest country in the world.
00:33:03.000 Happy to represent it here with these guys.
00:33:04.000 It's really special.
00:33:05.000 That's awesome.
00:33:06.000 But, man, it is tough where we're just breaking news.
00:33:09.000 U.S. athlete representing America likes America.
00:33:12.000 It's not the only one.
00:33:14.000 I think here's the thing.
00:33:15.000 And we talked about this.
00:33:16.000 There were similar clips that went around at the Australian Open, where you get these scumbag journalists that go around and they try and get clickbait.
00:33:23.000 They try and get their headline.
00:33:25.000 And so they ask, oh, these leading questions.
00:33:27.000 What's it like right now with everything going on in the United States?
00:33:30.000 That meany President Trump is your president.
00:33:32.000 What's it like?
00:33:33.000 And so they bait these athletes that are not used to thinking deeply about political topics.
00:33:39.000 And then they get their headlines.
00:33:40.000 And then that's what happens.
00:33:42.000 In the case of the Australian Open, the same journalist was going around to all the Americans asking the same question.
00:33:48.000 And most of them answered it well.
00:33:50.000 Some of them didn't.
00:33:51.000 And you get the same thing at the Olympics.
00:33:54.000 And so they're suckering these woke tards that are, you know, giving them bad answers. 1.00
00:33:59.000 So it's great when we get a Quinn Hughes type answer that we can all celebrate.
00:34:05.000 And I would just say, I mean, there was that one classic clip from the last, I think it was the last summer Olympics.
00:34:14.000 It was that black gal that we played a couple of years ago. 1.00
00:34:16.000 Yeah, we played.
00:34:16.000 She was just like, oh my gosh, I love America.
00:34:18.000 I love America.
00:34:20.000 Overall, like what this is, it says, to me, it says much more about the press than anything because that is what our press wants to do.
00:34:28.000 That's what they want to feed.
00:34:29.000 They want to make everything.
00:34:31.000 They want to make everything about politics.
00:34:33.000 They want to kind of stoke these things.
00:34:36.000 And as part of, they've pointed out that Eileen Gu, who is from America but represents China because she makes a ton of money doing it.
00:34:46.000 And you can watch her clips and she basically has a different personality when she is appearing in Chinese media. 0.86
00:34:52.000 Adopts a totally different demeanor.
00:34:54.000 It is totally apolitical.
00:34:56.000 It is totally just very sweet and pleasant and kind of feminine.
00:35:00.000 And then if she's appearing in U.S. stuff, she's like, oh, well, now I'm in America.
00:35:04.000 I have to maximize my brand.
00:35:05.000 I'm going to shout out women's reproductive rights and promote these left-wing causes. 1.00
00:35:10.000 Of course, it's all a shim. 1.00
00:35:12.000 I don't think she genuinely believes any of these things.
00:35:14.000 I think she just wants to be rich and make money. 1.00
00:35:16.000 And in America, in the Bay Area, you do that by mouthing left-wing platitudes.
00:35:21.000 And in China, you do that by being strictly apolitical and saying nothing about the government at all.
00:35:25.000 And you definitely, you don't rock the boat.
00:35:28.000 And that's what we have in China.
00:35:30.000 That's what we have in America.
00:35:31.000 She's picked her team.
00:35:32.000 Now, it's important to do a update on the medal count here.
00:35:37.000 So, oh, we do have that clip.
00:35:38.000 That was, okay, I brought it up.
00:35:40.000 Let's play it.
00:35:41.000 579 that feel to represent your country like this it feels amazing i love representing the u.s i freaking love living there i love it and i'm so happy i get to represent you as a it is a great clip That is a very immortal one.
00:35:58.000 That was from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
00:36:00.000 All right, so the medal count now.
00:36:02.000 We are getting killed by Norway. 0.98
00:36:04.000 No, okay.
00:36:05.000 Well, Norway, I don't know what their deal is, but it's a very cold place, so they have lots of medals.
00:36:09.000 34 medals for Norway, 26 for Italy, but we've closed the gap.
00:36:13.000 We are 25.
00:36:14.000 The United States has 25 medals.
00:36:16.000 France has 19.
00:36:18.000 Again, France. 0.87
00:36:19.000 I just, I don't know what it is about France, but I look at France every time and I'm like, I just, you know, I don't buy it.
00:36:24.000 Like, I just.
00:36:25.000 I think my favorite is Brazil has a gold medal, and it's a Norwegian person who just moved to Brazil and decided to play for their Olympic team for some reason.
00:36:35.000 And so they have a gold medal in Olympic skiing.
00:36:38.000 All right.
00:36:38.000 The last thing I want to talk about here is the Board of Peace.
00:36:42.000 It convened.
00:36:42.000 It almost is like Trump is establishing a supranational organization outside of the UN on purpose just to snub the UN.
00:36:53.000 And so we've got some clips here of President Trump doing this board of peace with Javier Malay, Turkey, Kazakhstan.
00:37:02.000 I mean, it's kind of a coalition of the willing, I would put it that way.
00:37:05.000 580, please.
00:37:07.000 And finally, to the American people, I think it's important that the American people recognize why we're here today.
00:37:12.000 And the reason that we're here today is, yes, to save lives and yes, to promote peace, but this creates incredible prosperity for the American people.
00:37:22.000 The countries represented here represent trillions of dollars of investment in the United States of America that would not have been possible without this president's leadership and advocacy for peace.
00:37:33.000 The economies here represent millions of American jobs of people who are receiving products built in American factories and made by American workers would not be possible without a focus on peace.
00:37:45.000 So, Mr. President, while I think this is great for the world, I also think it's really, really great for the United States of America.
00:37:51.000 So, we're looking forward to the partnership.
00:37:53.000 So, President Trump is the chairman.
00:37:56.000 The executive board, which focuses on diplomacy and investments, is Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Tony Blair, the former UK Prime Minister, Mark Rowan, CEO of the Apollo Global Management, Ajai Banga, the World Bank president, Robert Gabriel Jr., U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor, and Nicolae Mledenov, a high representative for Gaza, former UN envoy.
00:38:23.000 And there's a number of countries, like I said, there was 40 folks there on stage with President.
00:38:30.000 Again, it seems like a move where President Trump has been largely snubbed by the international organizations.
00:38:36.000 He's building his own.
00:38:38.000 And I find the timing of it to be somewhat ironic with the Iranian strike potentially imminent right now.
00:38:47.000 Well, the name is clearly the biggest thing.
00:38:49.000 He did, he campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
00:38:53.000 It was kind of an unprecedented thing, but a very Trumpian thing.
00:38:56.000 Imagine leaders competing to see who can end the most wars.
00:38:59.000 I mean, it's something to see that.
00:39:00.000 And by the way, he has a great track record ending wars.
00:39:03.000 So let's hope, let's pray for peace.
00:39:05.000 That's the final word I'll say to you today.
00:39:07.000 Pray for peace in Iran.
00:39:09.000 Let's focus on our country.
00:39:10.000 I think that's what we all want.
00:39:12.000 But sometimes you have to trust the leaders you elected.
00:39:15.000 And so that's our position.