{"id":169575,"date":"2025-09-20T11:19:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T11:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/169575\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T11:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T11:19:06","slug":"republican-ted-cruz-flags-dangerous-abuse-of-power-as-fcc-threats-pull-jimmy-kimmel-off-air-right-out-of-goodfellas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/169575\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Ted Cruz flags \u2018dangerous\u2019 abuse of power as FCC threats pull Jimmy Kimmel off air: \u2018Right out of Goodfellas’"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz<\/a>, a leading Republican and head of oversight for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), joined Democrats on Friday in criticising FCC Chair Brendan Carr for his recent threats against Disney and local broadcasters airing Jimmy Kimmel Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cruz, a conservative from Texas and a leading figure in Congress, called Carr\u2019s threat to fine broadcasters or revoke their licenses over show content \u201cdangerous,\u201d stressing bipartisan concern over potential government overreach and threats to free speech, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Jimmy Kimmel controversy: Will Disney revive ABC’s late-night show? Report hints at key meet<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI got to say that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas’,\u201d Cruz said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. \u201cThat’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it’.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senator’s remarks are a rare example of a member of President Donald Trump’<\/a>s own party publicly criticising the actions of the administration, highlighting deepening concerns over free-speech rights and Trump’s threatened crackdowns.<\/p>\n

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he disagreed with Cruz, calling Carr \u201can incredible American patriot with courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Trump repeated an oft-stated contention that broadcasters critical of his administration perhaps should have their FCC-issued licenses revoked.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Jimmy Fallon defends friend and suspended host Jimmy Kimmel, says \u2018I hope he comes back\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked to comment further on Friday, Trump said, \u201cI’m a very strong person for free speech,\u201d but added that the broadcasters were so stacked against him he considered them to be an extension of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee, I think that’s really illegal, personally,\u201d Trump said of extensive criticism. \u201cThat’s no longer free speech… That’s just cheating, and they cheat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel suspension follows Carr’s threats<\/p>\n

ABC, the television network owned by Disney<\/a>, has suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened investigations and regulatory action against licensed broadcasters airing the show. In response, the owners of dozens of local ABC-affiliated stations announced they would stop carrying the program. Trump, who appointed Carr, publicly supported the decision.<\/p>\n

The suspension came after Kimmel’s Monday night monologue, in which he addressed the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, a close associate and political ally of Trump.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Jimmy Kimmel show suspension: Donald Trump as \u2018great-grandfather\u2019? Late-Night hosts address free speech crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

Conservative activists were angered by Kimmel’s comments that they were using the assassination to score “political points” and his suggestion that the killer may also have been a conservative. Kimmel also joked about how Trump responded to the killing.<\/p>\n

Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and others who speak negatively of the president.<\/p>\n

Cruz, chair of the Senate’s commerce oversight committee, joined the criticism on the Friday episode of his podcast, saying Carr’s comments were \u201cdangerous as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senator, a former constitutional lawyer, then adopted a broad mafioso accent to quote Carr’s comments about broadcasters this week: \u201cWe can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Read: Tatiana Maslany, Damon Lindelof join Disney+ boycott calls following Jimmy Kimmel fallout<\/a><\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat who infrequently agrees with Cruz, has called on Carr to resign or for Trump to fire him. Schumer called Carr \u201cone of the single greatest threats to free speech America has ever known.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Friday asked the FCC’s inspector general to investigate Carr’s actions and comments. Carr and the FCC did not respond to requests for comment, but Carr said earlier this week he is \u201cnot going anywhere\u201d and vowed to continue his work taking on media firms and defending the \u201cpublic interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump celebrates comedian’s downfall<\/p>\n

Trump, a former successful TV host himself, spoke several times during a state visit to Britain this week to commend Kimmel’s suspension, calling the Los Angeles comedian untalented and denouncing him for saying \u201ca horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel has not publicly commented since his suspension, and the future of his show remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Jimmy Kimmel Live suspended: Sinclair to air Charlie Kirk tribute special in late-night slot this Friday<\/a><\/p>\n

Cruz said on his podcast that he had been mocked by Kimmel on air \u201cso many times I cannot count\u201d and that he hated Kimmel’s comments about Kirk. He said he was thrilled that Kimmel’s show had gone dark, but not that it resulted from government pressure.<\/p>\n

We shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cIt might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, but when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n

(With inputs from Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a leading Republican and head of oversight for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), joined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[17105,88,3092,101804,35360,101805,17114,11575,101806,9669,644,92,101803],"class_list":{"0":"post-169575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-brendan-carr","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fcc","11":"tag-fcc-chair-brendan-carr","12":"tag-free-speech","13":"tag-government-overreach","14":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","15":"tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","16":"tag-media-censorship","17":"tag-ted-cruz","18":"tag-trump-administration","19":"tag-tv","20":"tag-u-s-senator-ted-cruz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}