Democrats on Capitol Hill are fuming after ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel over comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and are accusing Republicans of backing censorship and trampling on the First Amendment.
Democrats are directing their ire in particular at Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr, who applauded the suspension, for what they view as intimidation tactics aimed at drowning out dissenting voices.
“[It] is the biggest attack on First Amendment rights that we’ve seen since the Alien and Sedition Act [of 1798],” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). “This is censorship.”
“The administration does not like what some people are saying, and it’s taking extremely aggressive action and using the power of the presidency to intimidate, in this case, a network into canceling a very popular show. It’s very very dangerous.”
Others argued that what happened to Kimmel amounts to “cancel culture” and pointed to frequent complaints by Republicans on that front in recent years.
“I never met Charlie Kirk and I didn’t know him, but everybody says he was a free speech guy — including speech that you may not like. So this is what we’re going to do?” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said, noting that he is “very pissed off” at the situation.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Carr to resign or be fired from his post and labeled him as “one of the greatest threats to free speech America has ever seen.”
“What Brendan Carr is doing is despicable. What he did to Jimmy Kimmel, he is doing to person after person, network after network, intimidating them and threatening them,” Schumer said in a social media post.
Across the Capitol, House Democratic leaders said Carr “engaged in the corrupt abuse of power. 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.”
The leadership team behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also pointed the finger at President Trump.
“Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s war on the First Amendment is blatantly inconsistent with American values,” they said, adding, “This will not be forgotten.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) vowed to launch a probe into the matter, saying the investigation will review the Trump administration, ABC and TV station owner Sinclair amid what he called ongoing efforts to “censor opposition.”
And Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) moved to subpoena Carr to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, describing the FCC chair’s actions as the “largest assault on the First Amendment and free speech in modern history.” Republicans blocked the motion with a party-line vote.
The Hill has reached out to the FCC for comment.
During an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity,” Carr said Kimmel and other left-leaning comics are “facing the consequences” of catering to what he called a “very narrow audience.”
“There’s more work to go,” he told host Sean Hannity. “But I’m very glad to see that America’s broadcasters are standing up for the interests of their community.”
Kimmel, a longtime antagonist of Trump and Republicans, had his show pulled on Wednesday after speaking about Kirk’s killing on his program two nights earlier.
During his monologue, the late-night host said that the country “hit some new lows over the weekend,” when the “MAGA gang desperately tried to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Those remarks prompted top administration officials to target Kimmel’s show. Carr on Wednesday threatened ABC and its local affiliates, indicating that the FCC could punish stations if they didn’t take steps regarding Kimmel.
“These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr told conservative commentator Benny Johnson on a podcast.
Nexstar Media Group, the owner of The Hill and affiliate stations across dozens of U.S. markets, announced on Wednesday that its affiliates would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live” due to the remarks. ABC followed suit with the suspension shortly after.
In its announcement, Nexstar said it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in a statement.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, defended the move, arguing it was a private company that ultimately made the call to bench the ABC mainstay.
“That’s a business decision for them to be able to look at,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of GOP leadership. “They’re trying to be able to decide, this is a person insulting a huge portion of America — do they want to keep dealing with this?”
The White House also sharply pushed back on the claims that Kimmel’s ouster was a free speech issue, pointing instead to his ratings. The White House rapid response team wrote on social media that ABC was “doing their viewers a favor. Jimmy is a sick freak!”
Tossing fuel on the fire from across the Atlantic was Trump, who celebrated Kimmel’s benching and called on NBC to do the same with Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, its late-night tandem.
The president also said that he is supportive of yanking network licenses over negative coverage.
“I read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me. Again, 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily won all seven swing states. The popular vote, won everything,” Trump told reporters in the United Kingdom.
“They’re 97 percent against; they give me only bad press. I mean, they’re getting a license,” he continued. “I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
He added that the decision would be up to Carr, who he went on to hail as a “patriot” and a “tough guy.”
