Senate Republican dismisses Cruz’s free speech warning about Kimmel suspension
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said on Sunday he does not share Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) concern over free speech after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to “take action” against ABC if it did not address comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s joke about Charlie Kirk’s assassin.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mullin was asked if he agrees with Cruz, who said on his podcast this week that while he’s “thrilled that [Kimmel] was fired,” he has concerns about the implications on free speech.
“It is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, ‘We're going to decide what speech we like and what we don't, and we're going to threaten to take you off air if we don't like what you're saying,’” Cruz said in a clip of his podcast played Sunday on CNN.
“No,” Mullin said when asked if he agrees with Cruz. “Here's what I want to point out real quick on this, is the ABC executives, they have the right to do what they choose to. They're running a business and a for-profit business, just like when Fox decided to remove Tucker Carlson over his covid comments.”
“If it doesn't align with a private business, then they have the right to remove them if it doesn't fit with their brand. It's that simple,” Mullin added.
CNN’s Dana Bash pushed back, noting the situation is different with ABC, a broadcast license-holder, which was “threatened by a government individual who has oversight over the regulation and potential for a merger in the future.”
But Mullin said Carr’s threat was non-consequential and that Kimmel’s joke crossed a line.
“This is also a network that has not been friendly to this administration whatsoever. And so I don't think a threat would make any difference whatsoever,” he said.
“They made a decision because Jimmy Kimmel said something that was extremely insensitive and a flat-out lie about the President of the United States, and there was no excuse for it. There is no excuse for making a joke — I don't care if you're a comedian or who you are — to making a joke about an assassination. There's no room for that at all, and ABC made that decision,” Mullin added.
Carr said in an interview last week that Kimmel’s suggestion that Kirk’s killer was MAGA-aligned would be “really, really sick” and that ABC, as a broadcast license-holder, needs to keep the public interest in mind.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr’s comments have drawn sharp criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who called the chairman “one of the greatest threats to free speech America has ever seen” after Carr backed the suspension.
Disney and ABC suspended Kimmel’s show indefinitely Wednesday after he said on his Monday show 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.”
Nexstar Media Group announced Wednesday that its affiliate stations would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live” due to the remarks. ABC followed suit with the suspension shortly after.
Nexstar owns The Hill, NewsNation and the CW.
Nexstar said in a statement that 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.”