Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday said that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr was joking — not strong-arming ABC — about taking action against late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel after the comedian’s remarks about the suspect in the killing of conservative leader Charlie Kirk.
Vance made the comments to reporters at a North Carolina fundraiser. The vice president was asked about the Trump administration’s stance on free speech in the aftermath of Carr’s comments about doing things “the easy way or the hard way” for ABC following Kimmel’s much-criticized monologue early last week.
Hours after Carr’s comments last week, ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for four shows. Kimmel’s hiatus ended Tuesday night.
“Well, look, on the free speech conversation, I’m pretty sure that Jimmy Kimmel was back on the air last night, and to the extent that he’s not back on the air, it’s because he’s not funny and has terrible ratings. This is not a federal government problem,” Vance said.
“What people will say is, Well, you know, didn’t the FCC commissioner put a tweet out that said something bad?
“Compare that — the FCC commissioner making a joke on social media — what is the government action that the Trump administration has engaged in to kick Jimmy Kimmel or anybody else off the air? Zero,” Vance said.
He added: “What government pressure have we brought to [bear] to tell people that they’re not allowed to speak their mind? Zero. We believe in free speech in the Trump administration. We are fighting every single day to protect it.”
The dispute erupted after a Kimmel monologue accusing Republicans of mischaracterizing the suspect’s background in the killing of Kirk for political gain.
Carr reacted, saying, “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
He received swift condemnation from a number of Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who assailed Carr for essentially threatening ABC to take Kimmel off the air.
“And so, [Carr] threatens explicitly, we’re going to cancel ABC’s license. We’re going to take him off the air so ABC cannot broadcast anymore. And I gotta say he threatens it. He says, ‘We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.'”
Cruz added: “And I gotta say, that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas.’ That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.'”
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