Ty Cobb, who once served as a lawyer to President Trump during his first term, offered stark criticism of the administration’s involvement in the suspension by ABC of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
Cobb said the pressure the Federal Communications Commission and the Trump administration put on ABC was comparable to what happens in Russia or what happened in Nazi Germany, which also banned comedians from the airwaves.
“It’s evocative of what we’ve seen throughout history. In 1939, Dr. Goebbels, at Hitler’s instruction, removed five comedians, or witticists as they were called at the time, from the airways in Germany and for criticizing or making fun of the government in a satire way,” Cobb said in an interview on MSNBC with Kristen Welker of “Meet The Press Now.”
Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister for Adolf Hitler, ended the careers of five actors and cabaret announces by expelling them from the Reich’s Chamber of Culture, according to a piece in the Forward. It appears that is the incident Cobb was making reference to.
Cobb also noted in the interview with Welker that Russian President Vladimir Putin had silenced critics of his from the arts communities, while also taking television stations that criticized him off the air – either by shutting them down or by seeing them purchased by allies.
“Trump is waging war on people who offend him. He’s all about vengeance. And sadly, his subordinates, like one of the Project 2025 authors, Brendan Carr of the FCC, are following in line,” said Cobb, a frequent critic of the president.
Cobb directly worked for Trump in the first term on the president’s legal team during the Robert Mueller investigation. He left that position in the spring of 2018.
ABC indefinitely suspended Kimmel, its longtime late-night host, after conservative furor over comments Kimmel made about the suspect arrested for the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kimmel described the suspect as MAGA, though reports have suggested the alleged shooter’s politics had been left-wing.
The ensuing debate has raised new concerns about restrictions on free speech.
Cobb’s remarks were first highlighted by Mediaite.
Kimmel’s future with ABC is unclear.
