Sen. Ted Cruz is sounding the alarm on comments made by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who recently suggested ABC could lose its broadcast license after the network pulled Jimmy Kimmel off
the air. Cruz, a Texas Republican, said the remarks were “dangerous as hell” and even compared them to mob-style threats.
On his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz, Cruz admitted he wasn’t a fan of Kimmel’s comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk—and was even “thrilled” ABC benched him. But, Cruz warned, the government shouldn’t be in the business of policing speech.
“I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I’m glad he’s gone,” Cruz said. “But if the government starts saying, ‘We don’t like what you said, so we’ll take away your platform,’ that will eventually come back to haunt conservatives.”
Cruz pointed out that if Democrats regain control of the White House, they could use the same tactics to silence voices on the right. “They will use this power ruthlessly. And that is dangerous,” he said.
When asked whether his Commerce Committee—which oversees the FCC—might investigate Carr’s comments, Cruz didn’t rule it out. “We will do our job and engage in oversight,” he said.
Former President Trump, however, backed Carr, calling him “a great American patriot” and dismissing Cruz’s concerns. Trump has also repeatedly hinted at pulling licenses from networks he feels are unfair to him.
Cruz didn’t hold back when replaying Carr’s appearance on far-right host Benny Johnson’s podcast, where Carr warned broadcasters: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” To Cruz, that sounded more like a mob shakedown than government policy.
“That’s right out of Goodfellas,” Cruz said. “‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”
While he stressed that he likes Carr personally, Cruz made it clear he thinks the chairman’s words cross a line: “It is unbelievably dangerous for government to decide which speech is acceptable and which isn’t.”
His bottom line? Even if conservatives don’t like what someone says, letting the government decide who gets to speak could eventually silence them too. Photo by U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, Wikimedia commons.
