Jimmy Kimmel Speaks Out After Trump's FCC Threatens ABC Over Interview With James Talarico

During his show on Wednesday, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel announced his interview on Thursday with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico will be put on YouTube instead of airing on ABC after the network received threats from President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

During his opening monologue, Kimmel said the 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 latest FCC development isn't the first time the agency has targeted Talarico’s campaign.

Earlier this year, CBS' The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was likewise blocked from airing an interview with Talarico. CBS lawyers had made the decision preemptively, amid pressure from the FCC as the agency sought to extend its interpretation of the "equal time" rule to late-night television programs.

The move ultimately proved beneficial for Talarico: within 24 hours of Colbert announcing that the interview had been shelved, the campaign raised $2.5 million. A clip of the interview posted to YouTube went on to draw 9.5 million views.

Addressing the FCC's newest move, Kimmel said:

“Tomorrow night, I’ll be interviewing James Talarico — tomorrow night, under unusual circumstances. You know, 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, Arsenio, et cetera, et cetera."

"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. 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 hosts 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. Now that he's 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."

"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 Talarico will not air on television. 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.”

You can hear what Kimmel said in the video below.

Many have condemned the Trump administration's actions.

The news is just the latest twist in Kimmel's relationship with the Trump administration.

A year ago, ABC announced it would end its suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! just a week after Trump pushed to get Kimmel off the air following comments Kimmel made about the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. ABC had had internal discussions with Disney, which saw a wave of subscriber cancellations in the wake of Kimmel's suspension.

When Kimmel returned, he called out the government interference that led to his suspension, saying that Trump "celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke" and is now "openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows who don’t make millions of dollars.”

Critics have noted that although Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of free expression, his second term has featured efforts to settle scores with critics—highlighted by his public celebration of Stephen Colbert’s show not being renewed by CBS and the removal of Kimmel from the air.