Good morning, I’m Thom Hartmann, and this is Raw America.
We are watching the systematic dismantling of American democracy in real time. The free press is being bought up and silenced. Political opponents are being prosecuted. Federal agencies are being weaponized against ordinary citizens. And the billionaire class is consolidating power at a speed and scale that should alarm every American regardless of political affiliation.
Raw America is Really American and Raw Story’s people-powered response to MAGA and oligarch-controlled media. We exist because the corporate press has failed you, and independent voices need your support to survive. If you believe that journalism should serve the public and not the powerful, please become a paid subscriber today. We don’t answer to billionaires or corporate boards. We answer to you. Your support is what keeps us in the fight.
Now let’s get to today’s news.
Colbert Slams CBS Censorship After They Pull His Interview
Stephen Colbert went off script on Monday night, and what he revealed should make every American uncomfortable. CBS lawyers told “The Late Show” it could not air a February 16th interview with Texas state representative James Talarico, a Democrat and Trump critic running for Senate. Not only that, Colbert was told he couldn’t even mention that the interview had been killed.
He mentioned it anyway.
Colbert attributed the decision to FCC chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee who in January issued new guidance dropping the longstanding broadcast exception to the so-called “equal time rule,” which requires networks to give equal airtime to all candidates in an election. Talk shows had historically been exempt. Now, suddenly, they’re not.
Colbert was direct about what’s really happening. “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV,” he said, “because all Trump does is watch TV.”
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. “The Late Show” is ending in May, and Colbert has said openly that CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, canceled the show while pursuing an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media that required federal regulatory approval. That merger was approved two months after the cancellation was announced. The timeline speaks for itself.
Anderson Cooper Walks Out On Bari Weiss
Anderson Cooper will not return to 60 Minutes after this season ends, closing out nearly two decades as a correspondent at the program. In his official statement, Cooper cited his young children. But that’s not the whole story.
Behind the scenes, Cooper had grown increasingly uncomfortable with the editorial direction CBS News has taken under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, installed by the pro-Trump billionaires who bought CBS’s parent company. As one insider put it, Cooper was not comfortable with where the show was heading and is in a position where he does not have to tolerate it. One source told Status News that his exit was “another black eye for Bari.”
The tension came to a head over a piece Cooper was developing about the Trump administration’s decision to accept South African refugees, a policy rooted in the debunked “white genocide” conspiracy theory. Both Weiss and the executive producer subjected it to unusually intense editorial scrutiny. The segment’s producer, a 60 Minutes veteran of more than three decades, was left exasperated. The piece has not aired, and it remains unclear if it ever will.
One television news executive said simply after Monday’s news broke: “This is the end of 60 Minutes as we know it.”
This is exactly why your support of Raw America matters. We’re accountable only to readers and viewers. That’s why we fight back. Join us in that fight.
Noem Tried To Pull A Rescue Plane From a Missing Sailor
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered the Coast Guard to divert an aircraft from an active search-and-rescue mission to transport detained migrants, according to two U.S. officials and a Coast Guard official who spoke to NBC News.
The search was for Seaman Bryan K. Lee, a 23-year-old from California who went missing on February 4th of last year, just nine days after Noem was confirmed as DHS secretary. A C-130 military transport aircraft was being used in the Pacific search when Noem verbally ordered Acting Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday to redirect it for what DHS called “Alien Expulsion Operations.”
Regional Coast Guard command in San Diego pushed back and found two alternative aircraft to transport the migrants, allowing the C-130 to remain on the search. Seaman Lee was never found.
DHS denied the account, calling it a “deep state effort” against Trump. But the toll on Coast Guard morale is undeniable. A former official told NBC that morale under Noem is “terrible” and that border security has been declared the force’s number one mission, displacing the search-and-rescue work that has defined the service for generations. Since Noem took over, more than 750 Coast Guard flights have been diverted from routine missions to transport detained migrants to deportation hubs.
Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal Lays into Hegseth
Here’s something worth noting: the Wall Street Journal editorial board, owned by Rupert Murdoch, the same Murdoch whose Fox News has been one of Trump’s most reliable propaganda organs, is now calling out “legal humiliation” becoming “a habit for Trump officials.”
The Journal was responding to a federal judge’s ruling blocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to strip Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona of his military rank and pension. Kelly, a combat veteran and former astronaut, had joined five other Democratic lawmakers in releasing a video reminding service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders. Trump responded by accusing the lawmakers of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Hegseth moved to demote Kelly. Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, blocked the move, finding it was a clear case of illegal retaliation for protected speech and warning that Hegseth’s approach would cause the entire representative system of U.S. government to cease to function.
The Journal also noted that a grand jury refused to indict the same six lawmakers on charges brought by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Not a single grand juror voted to indict. “A stunning rebuke for Ms. Pirro, who also seems to believe that her priority is lawfare instead of pursuing actual criminals,” the Journal’s editors wrote. When Rupert Murdoch’s own paper is writing that Trump officials are doing their reputations “no favors” by losing in court repeatedly, something significant is happening.
Cities are Fighting Back Against ICE
While the federal government wages its campaign against immigrant communities, cities and towns across America are pushing back in creative and determined ways.
Several cities have created “ICE-free zones” restricting immigration agents’ access to government-owned spaces, making it safer for residents to visit hospitals, courthouses, and public parks. Chicago, Oakland, San Jose, Providence, New York City, and New Jersey have all taken similar steps. Chicago’s mayor has ordered city police to document federal agents to build a record for potential criminal misconduct prosecutions. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has formed a national coalition called the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, sharing strategies for prosecuting agents who break state laws.
Communities have also blocked ICE from purchasing warehouses to convert into detention centers. Protesters in Ashland, Virginia convinced local commissioners to reject a DHS purchase. The Republican mayor of Oklahoma City met with building owners who then declined to sell to DHS. The Choctaw Nation issued an ordinance banning a nearby warehouse sale, and Kansas City passed a moratorium on new detention centers.
Activists are targeting ICE’s private contracts as well. Enterprise Rent-A-Car has faced pressure from congregations and elected officials. In Illinois, the secretary of state revoked an Enterprise license plate after ICE agents were caught illegally swapping plates. In Allentown, Pennsylvania, a county executive canceled ICE’s office lease over $115,000 in unpaid rent, saying the county would “not accept their blood money.”
This is what grassroots resistance looks like. It’s local, it’s determined, and we need more of it.
I'm Thom Hartmann. This is Raw America. Stay informed, stay engaged, and don't let them silence you.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Rev. Jesse Jackson Dies at 84. The Baptist minister, two-time presidential candidate, and civil rights icon died Tuesday at his home in Chicago. Jackson marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and spent six decades fighting for the marginalized and overlooked. “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” his family said in a statement.
House Passes Sweeping Voter Suppression Bill. The Republican-controlled House passed the SAVE America Act on a near party-line vote of 218-213, a bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot in all 50 states. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it “not about voter identification” but about “voter suppression,” noting it comes as Trump has publicly called for Republicans to “nationalize the voting.” The bill now faces long odds in the Senate.
ICE Agents Placed on Leave for Lying Under Oath in Minneapolis. Two ICE officers have been placed on administrative leave and accused of lying under oath about a January incident in which one of them shot a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg. The two men they had accused of attacking them with a broom and snow shovel — Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis — had their felony charges dropped after video evidence and witness testimony contradicted the officers’ sworn accounts.
Trump’s Immigration Policy Is Threatening Republican Control of Congress. New reporting from NPR finds that Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown is complicating Republicans’ attempts to maintain control of Congress heading into the 2026 midterms. New polling shows 49 percent of adults now strongly disapprove of how Trump has handled border security and immigration, up sharply from 38 percent strong disapproval last summer, with Trump’s overall approval rating sliding to 39 percent in the aftermath of the Minneapolis crackdown.
FBI Refuses to Share Evidence with Minnesota Investigators in Alex Pretti Shooting. Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed Monday that the FBI has formally notified state investigators that they will not receive access to evidence in the killing of Alex Pretti, who was shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on January 24. Governor Tim Walz blasted the decision, writing: “Minnesota needs impartial investigations into the shootings of American citizens on our streets. Trump’s left hand cannot investigate his right hand.”
