U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz says FCC chairman Brendan Carr sounded more like an organized crime boss than a federal regulator when he threatened to revoke ABC’s licenses over comments by late night host Jimmy Kimmel.
The Texas Republican emphasized how much he hates what Kimmel said about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk – and how much he likes and works closely with Carr.
Having high-ranking federal officials threaten ABC in such a way, however, is “dangerous as hell” because it presents a slippery slope that could end with conservatives facing government censorship down the road, Cruz said.
“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,” Cruz said on his Friday podcast.
On his podcast, Cruz played the Carr interview and then repeated the word “no” five times.
“That’s right out of Goodfellas,” Cruz said. “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.’”
Cruz said he agrees with those who say Kimmel was lying to the American people and doing so is not in the public interest. He said he hates what Kimmel said and is “thrilled” he is off the air.
But having the government policing speech in this way is a bad precedent that paves the way for Democrats to similarly go after conservative speech when they are once again in power, he said.
“They will silence us,” Cruz said. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly, and that is dangerous.”
