Senator Ted Cruz has launched a blistering attack on President Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr.
Cruz likened Carr to a mob leader, cautioning that his threats against broadcasters regarding Jimmy Kimmel’s inflammatory comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder could steer the U.S. towards a perilous direction.
Breaking ranks with the Trump administration in a rare move, Cruz criticized Carr’s proposal on his Verdict podcast. Carr suggested the Federal Communications Commission should consider revoking ABC’s license unless it disciplined Kimmel, whose show has now been put on an indefinite hiatus.
“He proposes doing it the easy way or the hard way,” Cruz stated. “That’s straight out of Goodfellas, reminiscent of a mafia figure walking into a bar and saying, ‘Nice bar you have. It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.'”
Although Cruz doesn’t support Kimmel, who he claimed misleadingly incited the public over Kirk’s death, he condemned Carr’s regulatory threats as a perilous misuse of governmental authority that could eventually harm conservatives.
“His statement is extremely dangerous. It might feel satisfying now to target Kimmel, but if such tactics are used to suppress every conservative voice in America, we’ll have regrets,” Cruz cautioned.
Earlier this week, during an interview, Carr’s explosive comments surfaced as he accused Kimmel of defaming the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and implied that ABC might suffer repercussions if it failed to respond.
Carr warned the FCC may review the public interest obligations of ABC and its affiliates.
Senator Ted Cruz has launched a blistering attack on President Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr
In a rare public break with the Trump administration Cruz compared Carr, left, to a mob boss warning that his threats to punish broadcasters over Jimmy Kimmel’s controversial remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination
Last week, ABC announced it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! ‘for the foreseeable future.’
Just hours later, ABC announced it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! ‘for the foreseeable future.’
Although the network gave no formal reason, insiders confirmed the decision followed mounting pressure over Kimmel’s monologue, which critics say implied Kirk’s murder was linked to right-wing extremism – an allegation that has since been disputed by investigators.
‘What people don’t understand is that broadcasters have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with an obligation to operate in the public interest,’ Carr said,
‘At the very least, I would like to have an on-air apology from Jimmy Kimmel… to all of those who he slandered,’ Carr added.
Cruz’s rebuke also came with a warning to his own party.
He noted how Republicans who cheer Carr’s actions today may regret them when Democrats regain the White House.
‘There will come a time when a Democrat wins again,’ Cruz cautioned. ‘They will get rid of everything America that’s conservative. They’ll get rid of every podcast. They’ll get rid of everything. They will silence us.’
The senator acknowledged that Kimmel has repeatedly mocked him and that many Republicans were pleased by his suspension, but he said those feelings are beside the point.
Kimmel, pictured with a then campaigning Trump on his show in 2016, said he once threatened to walk away from the show if he had to turn down his Trump jokes: ‘If you want somebody else to host the show, then that’s fine. I’m just not going to do it like that’ the liberal TV talker said
In the past, Carr once championed free expression, particularly when conservative voices were under threat
‘It’s fine to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable. It was disgraceful and he should be off air. But we shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air. That’s a real mistake,’ Cruz said.
‘If the government gets in the business of saying what the media can and can’t say… that will end up bad for conservatives,’ he warned.
‘It’s sort of like conservatives are saying, “Wait, wait. If we have government, we have power. We can ban the media.” But let me tell you what will happen going down this road.
‘We should not be in this business. We should denounce it,’ Cruz urged.
In the past Carr once championed free expression, particularly when conservative voices were under threat.
As a minority FCC commissioner during the Biden administration, Carr regularly blasted Democrats for allegedly attempting to muzzle right-leaning media outlets.
The senator, left, acknowledged that Kimmel has repeatedly mocked him and that many Republicans were pleased by his suspension, but he said those feelings are beside the point
But now as chairman under Trump’s second term, Carr appears to be wielding that same power in reverse.
In a scathing editorial, The Wall Street Journal called Carr’s threats a ‘misuse of regulatory power’ and praised Cruz for having ‘the courage to call it out.’
‘Most Republicans are afraid of uttering even a syllable of disapproval about the Trump administration,’ the Journal wrote. ‘So kudos to Ted Cruz for noticing the danger from Brendan Carr’s use of regulatory threats to stifle free speech.’
While Cruz has drawn a line in the sand over Carr’s tactics, not all Republicans are backing away.
Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick endorsed Carr’s underlying criticism and applauded Kimmel’s removal.
‘Agree with Senator Cruz. Good riddance to Jimmy Kimmel and his disgusting rhetoric. Ted also raises important concerns about the comments of the FCC chairman,’ McCormick posted on X.
Trump then added fuel to the fire by defending Carr and blasting the media, telling reporters that negative coverage of his administration is ‘really illegal.’
‘They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad,’ Trump said in the Oval Office. ‘See I think it’s really illegal, personally.’
Trump has filed multiple lawsuits against major news outlets, most recently losing a $15 billion defamation case against The New York Times that was tossed out by a federal judge.
Trump also called for two of Kimmel’s network rivals, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers to be fired
JD Vance, backed the cancellation in harsher terms. ‘If you celebrate Charlie Kirk’s death, you should not be protected from being fired for being a disgusting person,’ Vance said
Last week, Trump gloated on Truth Social at Kimmel’s suspension describing him as having ‘ZERO talent.’
‘Great News for America,’ Trump wrote. ‘ABC finally had the courage to do what had to be done.’
‘Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,’ Trump later told reporters. ‘He was fired for lack of talent.’
Meanwhile, his VP, JD Vance, backed the cancellation in harsher terms.
‘If you celebrate Charlie Kirk’s death, you should not be protected from being fired for being a disgusting person,’ Vance told Fox News.
‘The First Amendment protects a lot of very ugly speech – but not from consequences.’
