Rep. Ted Lieu (Ca.) ripped Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr along with other Democrats at a free speech rally in Los Angeles on Monday.
“Carr is a radical extremist abusing his authority,” Lieu, vice chair of the House Democratic caucus, said alongside fellow California Democratic Reps. Laura Friedman, Judy Chu, Nanette Barragán, Brad Sherman and Gil Cisneros.
Noting the First Amendment right to “speak truth to power,” Lieu called on ABC to sue the FCC.
“ABC, you have a choice,” he added. “You can continue to be bullied or you can stand up for yourself, stand up for the First Amendment, and invoke the protection of the First Amendment, an amendment that generations of Americans have given the blood, sweat and tears to defend.”
“And if you do that, we will be with you because we will not yield,” he added.
Carr has been criticized by lawmakers on Capitol Hill since ABC and its parent company, Disney, suspended late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel last week. Disney announced on Monday that Kimmel would return to the air on Tuesday night.
The suspension came after Kimmel accused conservatives of trying to “score political points” off the Sept. 10 fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, and joked that President Trump was grieving Kirk’s death “the way a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Hours before Kimmel was taken off the air, Carr told conservative commentator Benny Johnson that broadcasters should “step up and say this garbage to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities.”
After ABC and Disney suspended the late-night comedian, Carr praised the decision. Critics of the FCC chair’s remarks, including some Republicans, have accused him of pressuring broadcasters into taking Kimmel off the air, constituting a form of government censorship.
Disney, in a statement announcing Kimmel’s return to the air, said the comedian was suspended “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for the country.”
The day after Kimmel was suspended, House Democratic leaders, including Lieu, called for Carr to resign in a joint statement released by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
“Brendan Carr, the so-called Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has engaged in the corrupt abuse of power,” the statement read. “He has disgraced the office he holds by bullying ABC, the employer of Jimmy Kimmel, and forcing the company to bend the knee to the Trump administration.”
Carr, though, accused Democrats on Monday of employing a “campaign of projection and distortion” regarding his role in Kimmel’s suspension. The FCC chair was appointed by Trump in November 2024 and took office in January.
