Ted Cruz, the Republican Senator who leads oversight of the Federal Communications Commission, joined Democrats on Friday in criticising the FCC over events which this week led to the “indefinite suspension” of popular talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
The conservative senator from Texas, one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, said FCC chairman Brendan Carr’s threat to fine broadcasters or pull their licenses over the content of their shows was dangerous.
“I got to say that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas’,” Cruz said on his podcast, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. “That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it’.”
US senator Ted Cruz says what has happened to comedian Jimmy Kimmel could be turned around on conservatives. (Picture: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)The senator’s remarks are a rare example of a prominent member of President Donald Trump’s own party publicly criticising the actions of the administration, highlighting deepening concerns over free speech rights and Trump’s threatened crackdowns.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he disagreed with Cruz, calling Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage.”
On Thursday, Trump had repeated an oft-stated contention that broadcasters critical of his administration perhaps should have their FCC-issued licenses revoked.
Asked to comment further on Friday, Trump said, “I’m a very strong person for free speech,” but added that the broadcasters were so stacked against him he considered them to be an extension of the Democratic Party.
“See, I think that’s really illegal, personally,” Trump said of extensive criticism. “That’s no longer free speech… That’s just cheating, and they cheat.”
Television network ABC, which is owned by Disney, suspended Kimmel’s show after Carr threatened investigations and regulatory action against licensed broadcasters who aired Kimmel’s programme.
The owners of dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC said they would no longer carry the show. Trump, who appointed Carr, has cheered the decision.
The suspension followed Kimmel’s opening monologue on Monday’s show where he discussed the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, a friend and political ally of the president.
Conservative activists were angered by Kimmel’s comments that they were using the assassination to score “political points” and his suggestion that the killer may also have been a conservative. Kimmel also joked about how Trump responded to the killing.
Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and others who speak negatively of the president.
Cruz, chair of the Senate’s commerce oversight committee, joined the criticism, saying Carr’s comments were “dangerous as hell.”
The senator, a former constitutional lawyer, then adopted a broad mafioso accent to quote Carr’s comments about broadcasters this week: “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who infrequently agrees with Cruz, has called on Carr to resign or for Trump to fire him.
Carr and the FCC did not respond to requests for comment, but Carr said earlier this week he is “not going anywhere” and vowed to continue his work defending the “public interest.”
Trump, a former successful TV host himself, spoke several times during a state visit to Britain this week to commend Kimmel’s suspension, calling the Los Angeles comedian untalented and denouncing him for saying “a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”
In Monday’s monologue, Kimmel, who frequently lampoons Trump, mocked the president for turning a question about his grief for Kirk into a cheerful promotion for his planned White House ballroom.
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel said. “This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Kimmel has not publicly commented since his suspension, and the future of his show remains unclear.
Cruz said on his podcast that he had been mocked by Kimmel on air “so many times I cannot count” and that he hated Kimmel’s comments about Kirk.
He said he was thrilled that Kimmel’s show had gone dark, but not that it resulted from government pressure.
“We shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air,” Cruz said. “It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, but when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.”
With Reuters
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