Ted Cruz rips FCC’s Jimmy Kimmel threat as ‘unbelievably dangerous’

Washington – Senator Ted Cruz, R -Texas, castigated the president of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr on Friday for threats he made this week linked to the Jimmy Kimmel program, calling for the actions of the Trump administration manager “dangerous as hell”.

“I think it is incredibly dangerous for the government to put itself in the position of saying that we will decide which speech we love and what we do not like, and we will threaten to remove the air if we do not like what you say,” said Cruz on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”

“I like Brendan Carr. He is a good guy, he is the president of the FCC. I work in close collaboration with him, but what he said that there is a dangerous like hell”, “ Said Cruz.

Cruz is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FCC. He warned that Carr’s actions could have long -term consequences.

“It could be right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, yes, but when it is used to silence all the conservatives in America, we will regret it,” Said Cruz.

Friday, President Donald Trump took the side of Carr by speaking with journalists from the oval office, when he asked him about Cruz’s remarks.

“I think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot, so I don’t agree with Ted Cruz,” said Trump.

In an interview on Wednesday with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Carr warned that the FCC could take measures against ABC and his parent company, Disney, about the remarks that Kimmel made during his late evening show on the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Monday.

The actor said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that “the gang maga [is] Desperately try to characterize this child who murdered Charlie Kirk as something other than one of them and do everything they can to score political points. »»

Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged this week from the Kirk murder in Utah. Republican governor Spencer Cox said last weekend that Robinson grew up in a conservative household and was later influenced by “leftist ideology”. Robinson’s mother told the authorities that “in the past year Robinson had become more political and had started to look more on the left,” according to charge documents.

Carr has described Kimmel’s remarks as “the most patient driving possible”.

“This is a very, very serious problem at the moment for Disney. We can do it in the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change their driving and act, frankly, on Kimmel where there will be additional work for the FCC to come,” said Carr to Johnson, later suggesting that ABC affiliates could face fines or see these licenses. The show.

ABC announced that he was withdrawing the show of air indefinitely in the hours following the Carr’s remarks.

Senator Thom Tillis, RN.C., told journalists that Cruz “is absolutely right” in his review of Carr’s comments.

“It’s just unacceptable behavior,” said Tillis, who announced in the summer that he would not ask for his re -election next year.

Cruz continued saying on Friday: “I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said:” But compared Carr’s comments on Disney taking the easy way or the hard way to a classic crowd film.

“I must say that it is immediately” goodfellas “. It is completely outside a mafioso that enters a walk bar, a beautiful bar that you have here, it would be a shame that something happens there,” said Cruz.

“And so again, I like Brendan Carr, but we should not be in this business. We should denounce it. It is good to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable, it was shameful, and he should be out of the air, but we should not threaten the government’s power to force him. It is a real mistake,” said Cruz.

Senator Dave McCormick, R-P-P., Expressed his support for Cruz’s feelings in an article on social networks on Friday evening.

“Agree with Senator Cruz. Good riddance to Jimmy Kimmel and his disgusting rhetoric. Ted also raises important concerns concerning the comments of the President of the FCC,” wrote McCormick.

The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

The Democrats of the Senate Commerce Committee sent Cruz a letter on Friday calling for an audience with Carr.

“You have long granted priority to monitoring surveillance to ensure that our government is not used to arm speech censorship,” they wrote. “At a time when freedom of expression is threatened, this audience could not be more important for the American people.”

Questioned by NBC News if he would call on the committee for an audience, Cruz said: “We will certainly commit ourselves in the supervision of all agencies within the framework of the jurisdiction of the committee.”

Trump has repeatedly congratulated Carr and his actions, and suggested to journalists on Thursday that he thinks that the president of the FCC should go even further. He said that television broadcasters mainly give him negative coverage, and “I think that perhaps their license should be removed. It will be at Brendan Carr.”

Other Republicans have spoken in support of Carr, including the Chip Roy representative of Texas.

“I think that the FCC raised questions about what these broadcasting entities, you know, do with their licenses. They are well within their limits to do so,” said Roy on Thursday. “And the first amendment must be absolutely kept and protected and but again, we do a lot with FCC licenses. We let you say nothing to the diffusion. You know, we have, you know, constraints there, and it is appropriate.”

The president of the Mike Johnson room, R-La., Made suspension as a simple commercial decision for ABC.

“What I know is that AUC is a private company, and they can make their own choices on whom they want to wear their brand, so to speak. It is therefore a question of ABC leadership,” said Johnson.

Carr suggested that there was more to come. “We haven’t finished yet,” Carr told CNBC on Thursday.

The assassination of Kirk, who was a defender of the law of the first amendment to freedom of expression, led some Republicans to adopt a culture of cancellation against which the party had passed for years, the Trump administration looking for government employees who made negative comments on Kirk after his death.

Vice-president JD Vance earlier this week encouraged people to point out “someone celebrating Charlie’s murder” and “calling their employer”, while Attorney General Pam Bondi raised the possibility of reprimanding the “hate speech”.

Frank Thorp V reported Washington, Dareh Gregorian reported in New York.