President Donald Trump late Saturday called on Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice or “pay the consequences,” after she said Democrats would push for corporate accountability if they regain power in the November midterm elections.

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump described Rice, who served as President Joe Biden’s domestic policy chief and held top foreign policy posts under President Barack Obama, as “purely a political hack” with “no talent or skills.”

“HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK,” Trump wrote.

Rice argued during a podcast last week that “it is not going to end well” for corporations, news organizations, and law firms that “bent the knee” to Trump, and that their deference is unpopular.

“There is likely to be a swing in the other direction, and they are going to be caught with more than their pants down,” Rice told Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “They’re going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box.”

She added, “If these corporations think that Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to play by the old rules, and say, ‘Never mind, we will forgive you for all the people you fired and all the policies and principles you violated, all the laws you skirted,’ I think they got another thing coming.”

Rice served on Netflix’s board from 2018 to 2021, and rejoined in 2023 after leaving the Biden administration.

Netflix representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump included a screenshot of an earlier post from far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer, who said Rice’s remarks were “anti-American” and urged the president to “kill the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger now.” Loomer also tagged Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr in her post.

The comments come after Trump told NBC News earlier this month that the Department of Justice will “handle” the deal and that he’ll stay out of their review, after previously saying he’d be involved in the process. The DOJ is currently reviewing Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Netflix has proposed acquiring WBD in a $72 billion deal that would not include the company’s cable networks, including CNN.

Paramount Skydance, in response, launched a hostile takeover bid for all of WBD, promising its shareholders $30 per share in an all-cash deal.

The DOJ is investigating whether Netflix’s proposed deal could hurt competition, and it’s also asked how the company’s previous acquisitions have affected competition for creative talent, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

As part of its review, the agency is also examining whether the streaming giant uses anticompetitive tactics in negotiations with independent content creators for acquiring programming, Bloomberg reported, citing documents.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said last month that he’s confident the company will be able to secure regulatory approval “because this deal is pro-consumer … pro-innovation, pro-worker.”

Stephen Colbert ripped CBS for barring him from airing on his late-night TV show an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate.

“You know who’s not one of my guests tonight? That’s Texas Representative James Talarico,” Colbert told his show’s studio audience for Monday night’s broadcast of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” said Colbert, drawing boos from the crowd.

“Then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on,” Colbert said.

“And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this,” Colbert said to laughs and applause.

Colbert suggested that CBS’s move was the result of concern that the network would draw the ire of the Federal Communications Commission.

Colbert’s comments are the latest escalation in tension between talk show hosts and the FCC, following the brief suspension by ABC of fellow late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show last summer.

The FCC last month issued guidance to the three broadcast networks, reminding them of the 1934 law that requires networks to provide equal opportunity for coverage for political candidates if their opponents appear on air.

The guidance pointedly said there is no evidence that late-night and daytime talk show interviews would qualify for an exemption allowed under the law for “bona fide” news coverage.

Colbert, during Monday’s show, pointed to reports earlier this month that the FCC was investigating the ABC daytime talk show “The View” because of an appearance by Talarico on that program.

CBS, in a statement to CNBC, said, “The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico.”

“The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” CBS said.

“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.”

Talarico on Tuesday posted a link to his interview with Colbert, which was available online.

In a statement provided to CNBC by his Senate campaign, Talarico said, “I think [President] Donald Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas. This is the party that ran against cancel culture.”

“Now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, and what we read,” Talarico said.

“This is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top. A threat to one of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights.”

Talarico is in a close Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat against Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D- Texas, in which early voting began Tuesday. The winner will face off against the winner of the Republican primary between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Democrats last won a statewide race in Texas in 1994.

The FCC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether CBS would have run afoul of agency guidance by airing Talarico’s interview.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, in a statement, called CBS’s decision “yet another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this Administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech.”

“The FCC has no lawful authority to pressure broadcasters for political purposes or to create a climate that chills free expression,” Gomez said.

“CBS is fully protected under the First Amendment to determine what interviews it airs, which makes its decision to yield to political pressure all the more disappointing,” Gomez said.

“It is no secret that Paramount, CBS’s parent company, has regulatory matters before the government, but corporate interests cannot justify retreating from airing newsworthy content. The FCC is powerless to impose restrictions on protected speech, and any attempt to intimidate broadcasters into self-censorship undermines both press freedom and public trust.”

“I once again urge broadcasters and their parent companies to stand firm against these unlawful pressures and continue exercising their constitutional right to speak freely and without government interference,” Gomez said.

Paramount Skydance has launched a hostile tender bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal that would require regulatory approval from the federal government if WBD shareholders accept the offer.

CBS in July said Colbert’s show would be cancelled in May.

That announcement came shortly after Colbert blasted the network for giving what he called a “big fat bribe” to Trump. Paramount Skydance, earlier agreed to pay $16 million for Trump’s future presidential library to settle a lawsuit over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

A week after CBS said it was cancelling Colbert’s show, the FCC approved the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media.

Colbert, in September, spoke up for Kimmel when ABC pulled Kimmel off the air following remarks by FCC Chair Brendan Carr that the network’s broadcast license was at risk because of comments Kimmel made about the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Kimmel’s show returned to the air about a week later.

Warner Bros. Discovery‘s board is considering reopening sales talks with Paramount Skydance after recently receiving an amended offer with sweetened deal terms, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.

Warner Bros. in December agreed to sell both its film studio and HBO Max streaming service to Netflix for $27.75 per share. Paramount, which owns CBS and MTV, in December launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros., promising its shareholders $30 per share in an all-cash deal.

Last week, Paramount upped the ante, saying it would add a ticking fee of 25 cents a share to its offer for any delay in regulatory approval of the deal.

The ticking fee would be approximately $650 million in cash value per quarter for every quarter the deal has not closed by Dec. 31, 2026, CNBC.com previously reported.

Paramount also said it will cover a $2.8 billion termination fee paid to Netflix if the Warner Bros. deal is terminated. Paramount also said it will eliminate $1.5 billion in possible debt refinancing costs.

Both Paramount and Netflix have said they would be willing to raise their bids to secure the Warner Bros. deal, Bloomberg reported. However, this is the first time Warner Bros. has considered whether Paramount’s offer could either result in a better deal or prompt Netflix to offer better deal terms, according to the report.

Read the complete Bloomberg report here.

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