Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Friday rebuked Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr for backing ABC’s suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
Cheney, a vocal critic of the Trump administration who left office in 2023, pointed to the FCC chair’s comments before Kimmel’s suspension this week in which he called for ABC to “take action” on Kimmel or face a response by the federal regulator.
“Hey Brendan ‘we can do this the easy way or the hard way’ Carr: Last year in National Rifle Association v. Vullo, the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed this fundamental principle of our constitutional republic: ‘Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors,’” Cheney wrote in a post on X.
“This doesn’t just constrain Democrats. It applies to all officeholders, including you. You took an oath to the Constitution not to Donald Trump,” she added.
Numerous Democrats, free speech advocates and some Republican lawmakers have weighed in this week warning against the government getting involved in the censorship business.
Critics have specifically pushed back on Carr’s comments urging Kimmel to face punishment and praising the decision to indefinitely suspend him this week.
Carr on Wednesday said broadcasters were “doing the right thing” by pulling Kimmel off air after the late-night comedian claimed Kirk’s killer was part of the MAGA movement. Utah’s governor said the suspected shooter had left-leaning political views. Kimmel also compared President Trump’s mourning of Kirk’s death to a “4-year-old mourning a gold fish.”
“I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Friday on his podcast. “But let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying ‘we don’t like what you the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves, if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.”
Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence also said he “would have preferred that the chairman of the FCC had not weighed in” on the matter, while acknowledging employers are free to fire employees.
Carr, a top Trump ally whose actions the president has lauded this week, has defended his remarks about Kimmel while turning attention to other TV programs.
“I would assume you could make the argument that ‘The View’ is a bona fide news show, but I’m not so sure about that,” Carr said during an interview on conservative commentator Scott Jennings’s podcast, referring to ABC’s daytime talk show.
“And I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether ‘The View’ and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place,” he added.
