By now everyone reading this knows that Stephen Colbert was facing legal repercussions if he aired his interview with James Talarico on Monday’s Late Show. It’s also clear that Trump’s FCC is suddenly, just in time for the midterms, targeting left-leaning talk shows under the “equal time” rule, a rule that hasn’t applied to talk shows since 1959.
Less known is why republicans are so worried about Talarico.
The Trump administration grew concerned about Talarico after he appeared on The View in early February. Talarico, a Texas state representative, is a deeply religious Democratic lawmaker making waves by pointing out MAGA’s religious hypocrisy. Exceedingly clean-cut, he looks like a southern Baptist preacher, but he sounds like a true man of faith. And he has zero patience for golden calf worshippers.
Talarico: Calling out MAGA hypocrisy
Taking on Trump’s far right base, Talarico rails about the shameful gulf between the teachings of Christ and the suffering Trump is inflicting on the nation and the world.
Talarico notes that MAGA, while hewing to a self-proclaimed Christian identity, doesn’t seem to mind that Trump is building concentration camps to cage people who haven’t committed a crime. They also overlook that Trump’s ICE is throwing senior citizens to the pavement, dragging people from their cars, and breaking into homes without a search warrant. They don’t care that his agents are murdering peaceful U.S. protestors and Venezuelans in fishing boats that cannot, due to size and distance, make it to U.S. shores and therefore cannot be posing a direct threat.
Trump supporters say Trump is Chosen.
I say that if Jesus met him, Trump would get slapped for the first time in his life.
A Presbyterian seminarian, Talarico has gained national attention for using his theological background to criticize Chrisian nationalism, condemning it as a “betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth,” because it “worships power in the name of Christ.” Talarico urges MAGA to look at themselves and realize that chasing power at all costs is wrong.
Talarico uses his Christian faith to challenge corporate interests
Talarico also identifies the right vs. left political divide in the U.S. as deliberately orchestrated by oligarchs who back Trump. The real divide, he says, isn’t left vs. right; the true divide is top vs. bottom. “Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them while they pick our pockets.” The Trump oligarchy divides us “so we don’t notice they’re defunding our schools, gutting our healthcare, and cutting taxes for themselves and their rich friends. It’s the oldest strategy in the world: divide and conquer.”
He also argues that the separation of church and state protects religion by maintaining the church’s ability to speak truth to power. His opposition to a Ten Commandments bill went viral: “Maybe they should try following the Ten Commandments before mandating them.”
Naming Texas Gov. Fred Abbott as a ‘Robin Hood in reverse,’ Talarico calls school vouchers, which move education dollars from public to corporate-owned schools, “schemes,” scams, and “welfare for the rich.”
The GOP thinks Crockett would be easier to beat
During an interview, Joe Rogan told Talarico he should run for president. Praise like that, coming from the right, spells escalating attempts to censor Talarico from Trump’s FCC.
Republicans seem to think Talarico would be harder to beat than Jasmine Crokett in November’s U.S. Senate race, and, for that reason, want to see Crokett defeat Talarico in the primary.
They may be right: A poll by the National Republican Senatorial Committeeas reported in Newsweek shows Talarico leading Attorney General Ken Paxton by 3 points, while Paxton leads Crockett by 1 point.
Talarico: It’s time to flip some tables
During Colbert’s interview with Talarico, (on YouTube, not the actual Late Show), Talarico said that the right is now trying to control what we watch, what we say, and what we read, noting this as “the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top.”
On his campaign website, Talarico blasts the right’s hypocrisy, writing about a barefoot rabbi who issued two overriding commandments: love God, and love your neighbor. He insists “there is no love of God without love of neighbor.”
“Every single person bears the image of the sacred; every single person is holy — not just the neighbors who look like me or pray like me or vote like me. 2,000 years ago, when the powerful few rigged the system, that barefoot rabbi walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice. To those who love our country, to those who love our neighbors: It’s time to start flipping tables.”
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.