Colbert Censorship Spin, Guthrie Sheriff Changes Story Again, US-Canada Hockey Final: AM Update 2/18

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0:32Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Wednesday, February 18th, 2026. And this is your AM update. Let's just call this what it is. Donald Trump's administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV. Stephen Colbert cries censorship, but there's a lot more to the story. So you are no closer to a suspect as a result of the DNA test, at least. DNA testing in the Nancy Guthrie case finally uploaded to the FBI's database with no match. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies at age 84. And Team USA's women's Olympic hockey team readies to take on top rival Canada in the gold medal match.

1:13All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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1:57You get a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty, so this level of comfort truly lasts. Share a little extra love this February and wrap yourself or someone you care about in comfort that truly feels special. Head to CozyEarth.com, use my code MEGAN for up to 20 % off your order. That's code MEGAN for up to 20 % off. And if you get a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Celebrate every day. Love. With comfort that makes the little moments count more. CBS's Stephen Colbert, still months from his show coming to an end, making waves Monday night, claiming he was blocked by his network from hosting a Democrat primary candidate running for Senate in Texas, James Tallarico, suggesting his network caved to pressure from the Trump administration's Federal Communications Commission, or FCC.

2:48see. Tallarico, a former school teacher and Presbyterian minister in training, currently running a primary campaign against Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, among others. Colbert offering his explanation for why CBS lawyers allegedly blocked Tallarico from appearing on The Late Show on his program Monday night. You might have heard of this thing called the equal time rule, OK? It's an old FCC rule that applies only to radio and broadcast television, not cable or streaming, that says if a show has a candidate on during an election, they have to have all that candidate's opponents on as well. There's long been an exception for this rule, an exception for news interviews and talk show interviews with politicians.

3:31But on January 21st of this year, a letter was released by FCC chairman and smug bowling pin Brendan Carr. In this letter, Carr said he was thinking about drop in the exception for talk shows because he said some of them were motivated by partisan purposes. Let's just call this what it is. Donald Trump's administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV. Okay. Colbert then directing viewers to the late show's YouTube page where the interview aired online instead of on broadcast television. Here, a moment of the riveting content traditional viewers may have missed.

4:11But if people are watching this right now, it's because they found us online on YouTube. I did an act of the show that's on tonight explaining why. Do you mean to cause trouble? I think that Donald Trump is worried that we're about to flip Texas. This is the party that ran against cancel culture. And now they're trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read. and this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture. So Colbert and Tallarico say this whole kerfuffle is because the Trump administration is afraid of Tallarico and trying to silence him. But CBS, in a statement yesterday, pushing back on those claims, indicating the late show was not prohibited from broadcasting the Tallarico interview.

5:02Quote, the show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal time rule for two other candidates, including Representative Jasmine Crockett, the other guy is a Democrat named Ahmad Hassan, and presented options for how the equal time for the other candidates could be fulfilled. The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel, with on-air promotion on the broadcast, rather than potentially providing the equal time options. So, no ban, no government censorship, merely a private business decision, and one made because The Late Show did not want to give Congresswoman Crockett equal time.

5:40Can you blame them? Congresswoman Crockett addressing the debacle yesterday afternoon. I have done Colbert a number of times. We did receive information suggesting that the federal government did not shut down this segment, number one. That is my understanding. There may have been advice to just have me on, and then they could clear the issue. It was my understanding that someone somewhere decided we just don't want to do that. I don't have any love for the current FCC. I don't want anybody to believe that I do. I do not have any love for them. I do think that there are additional layers at play here.

6:20We spoke with constitutional attorney Daniel Sir, president of the Center for American Rights, whose organization previously filed an FCC complaint against CBS over alleged deceptive editing of then-Vice President Kamala Harris's 60 Minutes interview in the run-up to the 2024 election. Sir explaining the legal foundation governing broadcast networks like CBS. Broadcast television signals belong to the American people, right? They're not the property of any one company or any one broadcaster or network. And the Federal Communications Commission was created to regulate and license who uses those airwaves.

7:01So it has always been the case that broadcasters are given a license from the government to use a public asset. And that license comes with strings attached to protect the public. When television programs feature candidates on the public airwaves, they owe equal time to other candidates, right? We don't want television stations, which, after all, use the public airwaves to be misused to advance one particular candidate. Sir describing how the equal time rule works and how it's been used in the past. So you may remember back October of last year, November of last year, Vice President Harris went on Saturday Night Live.

7:48And as a consequence of the vice president going on SNL, President Trump got a free two-minute ad at the beginning of a NASCAR race to compensate for his equal time to make up for the SNL appearance. And so in this case, CBS could have had, Colbert could have had Jamie Tallrico on. That would have been fine. It would have been legal. The FCC would have had no problem with it. Just the law requires that CBS give equal time to Jasmine Crockett in the form of, say, 15 minutes of free ads. Sir, offering a final thought on Colbert's version of the story. The irony of all this is that Colbert is attacking Chairman Carr for supposedly being a Republican hatchet man executing on President Trump's revenge agenda against his enemies.

8:41And had the rule been followed in this case, it would have just meant that Democrats would have had more free airtime to attack President Trump, right? And that's because Colbert is missing the point of the rule. And the point of the rule is that it protects all candidates from all parties. The primary is set for March 3rd. Early voting began yesterday and runs until the 27th. A University of Houston poll earlier this month showing Tallarico trailing Ms. Crockett by eight points, 39 to 47 percent, although the Real Clear Politics average has the race tied at 41. Whomever wins the Democrat primary will then face off against their Republican opponent for the seat currently held by Republican John Cornyn, who is running for the GOP nomination and would like to keep his seat.

9:29A long-anticipated forensic step now complete in the case of missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. DNA recovered from a glove discovered a few miles from her home uploaded into the FBI's CODIS database, yielding no hits. Fox News' Jonathan Hunt speaking to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos yesterday afternoon. We had heard this morning that, of course, the DNA on the glove that was found two miles away was submitted for CODIS, and I just heard that CODIS had no hits. No hits on the DNA found in the glove? Correct. So you are no closer to a suspect as a result of the DNA test at least? As a result of CODIS, but we do have somebody's DNA in those gloves.

10:14Is there a match on the DNA in the glove to the DNA, the unknown DNA that you found in the house? There's no match to the DNA at the house. So entirely separate DNA? Correct. Okay, so that would mean if there's no, is there a CODIS match from the DNA in the house? No. Investigators are not even certain if the glove recovered near the home is connected to this case at all, though it does appear similar to the glove worn by the masked figure caught on camera outside Nancy's house on the night of her disappearance. The sheriff also confirming that the DNA samples from inside Nancy Guthrie's home did not match with the Fed's CODIS database of known felons or arrestees.

10:58Law enforcement saying both this DNA and that from the glove will now undergo genetic genealogical testing. MK True Crime host Phil Holloway tells us what information investigators hope to collect with this type of testing. The genealogical testing is a type of DNA forensics. It works by, you know, extracting the DNA from the samples. And then what they do, unlike traditional labs, they use genome sequencing to examine hundreds of thousands of markers. That data is then used to build a comprehensive genetic profile, and then it's searched against the genealogical databases such as DNA solves and acquired family DNA and other types of DNA profile aggregators to basically see if they can identify relatives of the subject.

11:52And then they use that information like an arrow to point it in the direction of who they might want to look at. Yesterday afternoon, co-owner of Armor Bearer Arms in Tucson, Philip Martin, telling a Fox News reporter FBI agents visited his store with three pages containing names and photos of about 18 to 24 people, asking whether they had purchased firearms in the last year. The FBI agent didn't tell me why he was here other than just he wanted to know if somebody or any of these people that he had on the papers had purchased a gun from us. So I was able to look at the photos that he was showing me and I told the FBI agent, I was like, I'm no investigator, but my intuition is telling me based on how these people's facial hair looks like, it looks like the guy that was on camera at that house doing the kidnapping.

12:45And he honestly kind of just smirked and took a deep breath. And he was like, yeah, that's why I'm here. He was like, we're going to be going to different gun shops, checking to see if any of these names that I'm showing you here, any of these people have purchased a gun in the last year. And so I just went on to check on our system to see if any of those people that were on the sheet had been in here to buy a gun. But unfortunately, none of them had. Meanwhile, Sheriff Nanos once again reversing course on the issue of whether the Guthrie's siblings or their spouses have been cleared in this case.

13:18On Sunday, the sheriff telling the Daily Mail, quote, nobody had been cleared. On Monday, the sheriff writing in a press release, the family, quote, has been cleared as possible suspects. NBC News reporting the change was not based on any new evidence. Then yesterday, the sheriff's office walking things back yet again, writing in its daily update, quote, at this time, the Guthrie family, including siblings and spouses, has not been identified as suspects. So, not cleared, but not, quote, identified as suspects, at least at this time. What a mess. Coming up, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, dead at 84.

14:00President Trump reacting as the longtime activist and two-time presidential candidate leaves behind a historic legacy. and the fiercest rivalry in women's hockey returns. Team USA and Team Canada set to clash for Olympic gold in Milan.

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15:24Civil rights leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84. He passed peacefully yesterday morning, surrounded by family at his home in Chicago, after years of declining health. Jackson suffered from a severe neurodegenerative condition called progressive supranuclear palsy, though the official cause of death has not yet been released. In a statement, the family calling Jackson, quote, a servant leader, not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world. President Trump honoring Jackson in a lengthy Truth Social post reading in part, quote, I knew him well long before becoming president.

16:01He was a good man with lots of personality, grit, and street smarts. He was very gregarious, someone who truly loved people. Despite the fact that I am falsely and consistently called a racist by the scoundrels and lunatics on the radical left, Democrats all, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way. I provided office space for him and his rainbow coalition for years in the Trump building at 40 Wall Street. The Reverend Jackson and your humble correspondent crossed paths many times during the Fox News days, and, if you will permit me, he was always affable, warm, and genuine. Jackson, a protege of Reverend Dr.

16:40Martin Luther King Jr., later becoming a prominent leader in Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded to fight segregation through nonviolent protests. Over the decades, Jackson founding the Rainbow Push Coalition, advocating for social justice, running for president twice in 1984 and 88, and becoming one of the leading voices of the modern civil rights movement. Here, a moment from Jackson's 1988 Democratic National Convention speech. I'm a working person's person. That's why I understand you, whether you're black or white, I understand work. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

17:14I had a shovel program for my hand. My mother, a working woman. So many days she went to work early, but runs in her stockings. She knew better. But she rolled runs in her stockings so that my brother and I could have matching socks and not be laughed at his school. I understand. Jackson's life was not without controversy. In 2001, he publicly acknowledged fathering a daughter, Ashley, after an affair with a Rainbow Push staffer. He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, their five children together, his daughter Ashley, and grandchildren. One of the greatest rivalries in international hockey returns this week.

17:58The U.S. women's Olympic team set to take on Team Canada for the gold in Milan tomorrow at 1.10 p.m. Eastern. The event marking the seventh Olympic gold medal showdown between the two powerhouse teams. Team USA sealing its spot in the final round following a 5-0 win Monday against Sweden, Canada defeating Switzerland 2-1 in its Monday semifinal. Together, the rivals dominating the sport from the start, winning every Olympic gold medal in women's hockey, Canada in the lead with five golds to America's two. The Americans entering with the momentum undefeated 6-0 in the tournament with an overall score of 31-1.

18:40In the preliminary round last week, the U.S. triumphing over Canada with a 5-0 shutout, Canada's worst loss at the Olympics. Now, with gold within reach, Team USA says this is its moment. Some of the stars of the team Monday following their semi-final win over Sweden. These are the moments you dream of as being a little kid. You know, everything on the line, the big moments, and to be able to do it with this room and this type of people is just so much fun. So I'm really looking forward to the opportunity. and we really wanted to get to the gold medal game and so we're just one step closer to our ultimate goal and I think this team is ready for it for sure.

19:16It's going to be the hardest game that we've played and we're going to see two teams give their all and it's going to be a dogfight. Always excited to face off against Canada and it's always a great game. It's a huge rivalry. We're rooting for you ladies to defeat our evil top hat. And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the MK Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megynkelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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