Ted Cruz just torched his own team’s regulator. On Friday’s episode of his Verdict podcast, the Texas Republican unloaded on Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr for hinting that ABC could lose its broadcast license over Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Cruz said the tough-guy rhetoric sounded “right out of Goodfellas,” and warned that government muscle aimed at a TV network is “dangerous as hell.”
Cruz’s slapdown lands amid a broader speech fight that has scrambled partisan lines. Carr, freshly emboldened as FCC boss, suggested on conservative podcasts that broadcasters who don’t “find ways to change conduct,” including “taking action” on Kimmel, could face “additional work for the FCC ahead.” ABC shelved Jimmy Kimmel Live! the next day, and several affiliates announced preemptions, setting off alarms among First Amendment advocates.
Senator Ted Cruz says that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s statements about Jimmy Kimmel were “dangerous as hell” and compares them to the kind of rhetoric a mafia boss would use.
Cruz says that while he likes Carr a lot and is happy that Kimmel’s show got shelved by ABC, he… pic.twitter.com/HLUATocXiQ
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 19, 2025
“Look, I don’t like what Kimmel said. I’m thrilled he was pulled,” Cruz said, before drawing a red line on government threats. “If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you said, so we’ll ban you from the airwaves,’ that will end up bad for conservatives.” Coming from a senator who chairs the powerful Commerce Committee overseeing the FCC, that’s not a throwaway line. It’s a shot across the regulator’s bow.
Civil-liberties groups are piling on, calling Carr’s approach a textbook case of jawboning, the kind of informal strong-arming courts have frowned upon for decades. When a network drops high-profile talent hours after the FCC chairman makes a barely veiled threat, critics say it is no longer just a business decision. Media lawyers likewise note that dangling license power over content crosses bright legal lines.
ABC pulls ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ indefinitely after ‘offensive’ Charlie Kirk comments https://t.co/waiCZlu7kp pic.twitter.com/B7G1YoYtmq
— New York Post (@nypost) September 17, 2025
The politics are messy, too. Former President Donald Trump cheered Kimmel’s suspension and floated yanking hostile networks’ licenses altogether, praising Carr as “outstanding.” That may play to the base, but it undercuts GOP free-speech arguments, which Cruz explicitly invoked as he cautioned that the same cudgel could one day be swung by Democrats. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly,” he warned.
Carr’s allies insist the agency can police “news distortion” and uphold the public interest, especially when broadcasters, not platforms, use public airwaves. But the timeline has spooked even some conservatives: Carr talks tough on a podcast, affiliates blink, the network benches its late-night star, and the chair vows “we’re not done yet.” That looks less like neutral regulation and more like a government thumb on the scale.
🚨BOOM: Rep. Swalwell confronts FCC Chair Brendan Carr:
“There’s going to be a Dem majority (in 2026). To the FCC chairperson and anyone else involved in these dirty deals: get a lawyer & save your records because… (you’ll) be answering questions.”
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) September 18, 2025
Cruz’s message, stripped down, is a warning label for the right: celebrate Kimmel’s comeuppance if you want, but don’t hand Washington a content kill switch you wouldn’t trust in your opponents’ hands. He even personalized it, saying he knows and works with Carr, then flatly rejecting the tough talk: “No, no, no, no, no.” On this one, Cruz is betting that conservatives prefer the First Amendment over a fleeting win in the culture wars.
What comes next could decide whether this was a one-off overreaction or the start of a new censorship-by-regulator era. Congress can haul in the FCC for oversight hearings. Courts can swat away any attempt to punish a network for protected speech. And viewers can decide whether they want bureaucrats deciding which late-night jokes make it to air. For now, Cruz lit the fuse, and sent a clear message to his own side to back away from the match.
