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News Host
We have some major developments at this hour. The effort to silence Stephen Colbert has failed, has failed pretty miserably as Stephen Colbert's numbers right now are surging. If you didn't know the Trump fcc, the chairman of the fcc, Brendan Carr, who wrote the chapter for the FCC and Project 2025, tried to censor CBS and Colbert telling CBS Colbert cannot air a recorded interview with State Representative James Talarico. CBS quickly obliged caving to the Trump administration. Colbert put that up anyway on social media and while the accounts they're surging at the same time, the Department of Homeland Security right now is in deep trouble as there are significant issues emerging between Kristi Noem, the Secretary, and the Coast Guard to the point where now today, Trisha McLaughlin, the spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, has decided to resign from her role. Make sure to like, comment, share and subscribe. The more you like, the more people see this and support my work. Subscribe to my subset. Click the link below. Let's jump right into it this afternoon. Stephen Colbert show is surging View counts on the most watched Colbert clips on his FCC censored Talarico interview are over a million on every platform platform from YouTube to Instagram to TikTok and Twitter. Significant surges across the board. For perspective on linear TV, his show averages 2.3 million viewers. So on most platforms that's already been surpassed and well, those numbers are only going to continue growing. What Trump tried to do is silence Colbert, but it turned into the Streisand effect where more people are now tuning into Colbert rather than not. And so you have a situation where Colbert's ratings online on social media continue to surge as the Trump administration continues to crack down on media that it does not approve of. And it comes at a precarious time for the President because his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under significant fire. New reporting from the Coast Guard shows from NBC News shows that Noam's leadership at the Department of Homeland Security has created a specific split in the Coast Guard. Many rank and file members are motivated by her approach, in which she showcases their work by joining them on operations and visiting their ships. Some more senior officials, however, see that approach as taken away from the Coast Guard's traditional missions. The dynamic with more senior officials has only worsened in recent months as NOME oversaw a tenfold increase in the use of the Coast Guard's aircraft for deportation efforts. So let that sink in. They are using Coast Guard efforts for deportation. Now. There is a key story here that I think many people need to know about because this tension between Coast Guard officials and Nome began after a 23 year old coast Guardsman went overboard into the Pacific Ocean from the Qatar on February 4 last year, shortly after the United States Senate confirmed Noem into her role. The Coast Guard had searched ships and aircraft to the Pacific to find the Guardsmen. Hours into the search, Noem learned that a Coast Guard C130 that was supposed to fly detained migrants from California to Texas was among the aircraft over the Pacific looking for the missing guardsmen. And she interviewed, according to two officials, and she intervened. Noem verbally instructed the acting commandant of the Coast Guard to pull the plane off the search and rescue mission so it would not miss the immigrant flight. As part of the Department of Homeland Security, so called alien expulsion operations. Lunde then notified the National Command center which ordered the C130 to fly to San Diego while the other aircraft and ships were involved in the search. In an effort to keep the C130 searching for the missing service member, the regional Coast Guard command in south in San Diego scrambled to find two available C27s that could fly the detained people to Texas, which freed up the C130 to continue searching for the missing Guardsmen. After about an hour, the search went on for 190 hours, covering 19,000 square miles. The guardsman was never found. She wanted to pull away Coast Guard resources and instead use them to continue her mass deportation efforts. And that's caused outrage. It's caused outrage. And it comes as polling for many of the President's policies are really tanking, whether it's immigration or health care. And I do want to briefly touch on health care while I have you because I partnered with Chapter, a company that deals with Medicare, a company that deals with making Medicare simpler. Millions of seniors right now are essentially on the wrong side of the Medicare, on their wrong Medicare plans. And most of them, most of you, if you're watching, don't even know it. I partnered with Chapter because it makes Medicare simple, makes it easier. You can go on their website and compare all your options in just under 20 minutes. It essentially allows you to search every plan to make sure that you have the right one. It saves seniors on average about $1,100. And it's completely free to use. So you can check out Chapter for free and unbiased medical help. Simply dial 212-200-3531 to speak with my trusted partner Chapter or go to ask chapter.org backslash Parnas. All of that information is linked below as well. And for me, I mean, I think it's an important partnership to have, especially as Medicare is becoming more difficult to use and efforts in Washington, D.C. aren't helping at all. So that polling is tanking. What else is tanking is immigration. Immigration is tanking right now. And we'll listen to Don Bacon, what he had to say about new changes in the Trump immigration policy about whether or not they need a search warrant to enter your home. Take a listen to this from Congressman Don Bacon, who is a Republican, though.
Interviewer
Because they say that there has to be some kind of effort to restrict ice, restrict their tactics based on those killings that we've seen, the killings of Americans, of Alex Grady, of Renee Good. Would you be willing to say yes to something like having to have judicial warrants before ICE can enter a home or any kind of limitations on where they're able to conduct arrests, like in front of hospitals or around schools and churches?
Congressman Don Bacon
A little more critical of what the Democrats are asking for. I think the body cameras are easy. I do support warrants. What's in the Constitution if it's, you know, it's has to be done for everybody, if you ask me. Now, I, I'm not a lawyer. I do know people get arrested in their homes when they're wanted, if they've committed a crime. And so I'll let the lawyer sort through that. But I don't. The Democrats are doing this because they're angry at the ICE and the Border Patrol actions. But my point would be they're already funded, so they're punishing tsa, Coast Guard, fema, Secret Service, folks like that. And I don't, I personally don't think that's right. And the real correction here is every two years we do elections and, you know, ultimately the deal, the voters get to pick on this and do course corrections.
News Host
So he believes that there should be, he tagged Democrats for the ongoing shutdown, when in reality, I mean, it's debatable. You can argue that Republicans cause a shutdown by not negotiating at all with Democrats. But he's arguing that we need constitutional warrants to essentially go into someone's home. And that's kind of what the law says now. At the same time, Trisha McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security top spokesperson, one of the most visible defenders of the Trump administration's deportation rates, is leaving the agency now comes after the murders of Alex Preddy, comes after the murder of Renee Goode, comes after this story about the Coast Guards. She is leaving. So major developments right now. Make sure to like, comment, share and subscribe. The more you like, the more people see this of an update for you very soon. Hey folks, thanks so much for watching. Feel free to add this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you watch for the latest breaking news and daily hits throughout the day. Make sure to follow. Subscribe. See you soon.
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Episode: Breaking: Trump Effort to Censor Colbert Backfires as Chaos Breaks Out at DHS
Host: Aaron Parnas
Date: February 17, 2026
In this episode, Aaron Parnas unpacks two major breaking stories at the intersection of media, law, and national politics. First, he examines the Trump administration’s failed attempt to censor The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, highlighting how it instead boosted Colbert's reach across social platforms and exemplified the "Streisand effect." Second, he delves into escalating chaos at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with Secretary Kristi Noem under fire for controversial leadership decisions—most notably involving the Coast Guard and mass deportation operations—and the high-profile resignation of DHS spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin. The episode includes critical analysis, firsthand reporting, and an interview with Republican Congressman Don Bacon on new Trump-era immigration enforcement measures.
“What Trump tried to do is silence Colbert, but it turned into the Streisand effect where more people are now tuning into Colbert rather than not.” [01:59]
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s Leadership Under Fire:
“She wanted to pull away Coast Guard resources and instead use them to continue her mass deportation efforts. And that’s caused outrage.” [05:28]
DHS Spokesperson Resigns:
“I do support warrants. What’s in the Constitution… it has to be done for everybody, if you ask me. Now, I, I’m not a lawyer. I do know people get arrested in their homes when they’re wanted, if they’ve committed a crime. And so I’ll let the lawyer sort through that.” [07:17]
“What Trump tried to do is silence Colbert, but it turned into the Streisand effect where more people are now tuning into Colbert rather than not.”
— Aaron Parnas, [01:59]
“She wanted to pull away Coast Guard resources and instead use them to continue her mass deportation efforts. And that’s caused outrage. It’s caused outrage.”
— Aaron Parnas, [05:28]
“I do support warrants. What’s in the Constitution… it has to be done for everybody, if you ask me.”
— Don Bacon, [07:17]
This episode demonstrates Aaron Parnas’s sharp commentary and ability to connect dots between breaking news, media, and governance—in a tone that blends urgency, skepticism, and accessible legal-political context.