Charlamagne Declares Trump Admin ‘Officially an Authoritarian Regime’ Over Jimmy Kimmel FCC Threat

Charlamagne Tha God has “officially” declared President Donald Trump’s administration “an authoritarian regime.”

The strong statement came during Thursday’s episode of The Breakfast Club, amid a discussion of the recent news that Jimmy Kimmel was moving an interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D) to YouTube in the wake of alleged legal threats from the Federal Communications Commission.

“Well, it’s safe to call the Trump administration an authoritarian regime now,” Charlamagne said.

“Like it’s absolutely official. Like when they interfere with the media to control public narratives and suppress, you know, interviews, officially an authoritarian regime.”

Kimmel claimed Wednesday during his monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that his chat with Talarico was being shown only on YouTube after threats from the FCC.

ABC sued the FCC last month claiming retaliation and admitting it had changed decisions on who to book on its shows because of the agency’s actions.

Talarico called the reported threats from the FCC and the result of keeping the Kimmel interview off broadcast television “censorship.”

“I think it’s the most dangerous form of cancel culture,” he told MS NOW’s Symone Sanders Townsend for an episode of The Weeknight set to air Thursday.

“People at the top, powerful politicians, powerful media executives, censoring what we watch, what we read, what we say. And that, again, should be a concern to everyone who believes in the First Amendment and believes in the freedom of speech.”

Talarico has been in a tight Senate race against Ken Paxton (R) in Texas, and has been leading or neck-and-neck in the polls in the typically solidly Republican state.

It’s not the first time a late night network host’s interview with Talarico got bumped to YouTube allegedly because of federal regulators.

In February, Stephen Colbert interviewed Talarico for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, only to have CBS bump the sit-down to YouTube.

The change resulted in a fundraising bonanza for Talarico, who raked in $2.5 million in donations after the fiasco became public.

Watch above via YouTube.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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