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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, managed to roast late-night comics, Democrats and the Biden administration while scolding Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr in his remarks during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Cruz, who scheduled the hearing last month, grilled Carr over his push for broadcasters to take ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel off the air. On the heels of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Kimmel accused conservatives of reaching “new lows” in trying to pin a left-wing ideology on 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson, even though prosecutors reaffirmed those ties in an indictment.
Appearing the next day on “The Benny Show,” Carr called Kimmel’s comments “some of the sickest conduct” and suggested there were potential “avenues” the FCC could pursue. ABC parent company Disney then briefly suspended Kimmel, but Cruz doesn’t think the FCC should have forced their hand.
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“Jimmy Kimmel is angry, overtly partisan, and profoundly unfunny. That, sadly, is true for most late-night comedians today, who seem to be collectively broken by President Trump’s election. Jimmy’s remarks about Charlie Kirk were tasteless, and ABC and its affiliates would have been fully within their right to fire him, or simply to no longer air his program,” Cruz said.
“That was their choice. But what government cannot do is force private entities to take actions that the government cannot take directly. Government officials threatening adverse consequences for disfavored content is an unconstitutional coercion that chills free speech,” Cruz continued. “This is why it was so insidious how the Biden administration jawboned social media into shutting down conservatives online over accurate information line over COVID or voter fraud.”
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Cruz then said his Democratic colleagues were “silent” during the Biden administration.
“I welcome them, now having discovered the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights. Democrats or Republicans, we cannot have the government arbitrating truth or opinion,” Cruz said.
Carr agreed with Cruz about the examples he laid out that occurred during the Biden era but said he must be consistent with the precedents set by the Communications Act and First Amendment concerns when ensuring broadcast networks are working in the public’s interest.
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On Cruz’s podcast, he previously called Carr’s comment “dangerous as hell.”
“I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off-air if we don’t like what you’re saying,” Cruz said on his podcast.
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