Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) mentioned he’s glad late night time comic Jimmy Kimmel is off the air indefinitely, however he warned that Federal Communications Fee (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr’s risk to take motion towards ABC appeared like one thing “right out of Goodfellas,” the traditional mob film, and “dangerous as hell.”
“Jimmy Kimmel has mocked me so many times I cannot count. The corporate media, they’re dishonest, they are liars. I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” Cruz mentioned on his podcast “Verdict.”
However he warned that Carr’s assertion that the FCC might have a look at “remedies” to pursue if ABC didn’t take motion in response to Kimmel’s implication that Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer was a member of the “MAGA gang” was a foul concept.
“No, no, no, no, no. Look, I like Brendan Carr, he’s a good guy, he’s the chairman of the FCC, I work closely with him. But what he said there is dangerous as well,” Cruz mentioned.
Cruz, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, made his feedback in response to Carr’s interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
Carr mentioned in that interview that Kimmel’s suggestion that Kirk’s killer was MAGA-aligned can be “really, really sick” and that ABC as a broadcast license-holder must hold the general public curiosity in thoughts.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr mentioned. “These corporations can discover methods to vary conduct and take motion, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you understand, there’s going to be further work for the FCC forward.”
“I got to say, that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas.’ 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,’” Cruz mentioned, referring mob-movie traditional directed by Martin Scorsese, which was primarily based on real-life occasions.
“Let me tell you if the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you the media says. We’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like.’ That will end up bad for conservatives,” Cruz warned.
Carr’s feedback have drawn sharp criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill, together with Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who known as the chairman “one of the greatest threats to free speech America has ever seen” after Carr backed the suspension.
Disney and ABC suspended Kimmel’s present indefinitely Wednesday after he mentioned on his Monday present that the nation “hit some new lows over the weekend” when the “MAGA gang desperately tried to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Nexstar Media Group introduced Wednesday that its affiliate stations would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live” as a result of remarks. ABC adopted swimsuit with the suspension shortly after.
Nexstar owns The Hill, NewsNation and the CW.
Nexstar mentioned in assertion that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
Al Weaver contributed.
