Texas Senator Ted Cruz is thrilled he hasn’t had to hear Jimmy Kimmel’s voice since ABC suspended the late-night host over comments that angered conservatives, but he isn’t a fan of the “mafioso” tactics the Federal Communications Commission used to leverage network executives.
Kimmel was “indefinitely” suspended on Wednesday after MAGA loyalists took exception to his suggestion that the Utah man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk was “one of them.”
Suspected gunman Tyler Robinson appears to have been raised in a Republican family, though there’s no indication he was acting on behalf of a right-wing movement. Conservatives, including FCC Chairman Brandon Carr, strongly condemned Kimmel’s implication and called for ABC to take action.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said Carr, whose agency overseas licensing rights for TV networks including ABC.
Cruz took exception to that approach on the Friday episode of his podcast “Verdict,” where he compared Carr’s rhetoric to dialog from the 1990 gangster film “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,’” Cruz said.
According to the 54-year-old lawmaker, Republicans may currently control the U.S. government, but abusing that power to silence entertainers and TV networks is something they’ll come to regret if the Democratic party starts winning elections again.
“Look, I understand. Jimmy Kimmel has mocked me so many times I cannot count,” Cruz confessed, but said that using federal organizations like the FCC to silence entertainers is “dangerous as hell.”
“I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” Cruz continued. “But let me tell you: 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.”
