Trump ally threatening to cancel ABC's license following Jimmy Kimmel's joke on Charlie Kirk
Brendan Carr threatened to revoke ABC's broadcasting license over Jimmy Kimmel's comments on Tyler Robinson, the suspected shooter of Charlie Kirk.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has threatened to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license following a Jimmy Kimmel monologue about Tyler Robinson, the suspected shooter of Charlie Kirk.
During an interview with right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson, Carr accused Kimmel of deliberately pushing misinformation. He claimed the late-night host was “intentionally” framing Robinson as politically motivated.
“The FCC could make a strong argument that this is sort of an intentional effort to mislead the American people about a very core fundamental fact, a very important matter,” Carr told Johnson.
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Johnson shared the Kimmel clip on X multiple times, insisting the comedian was “explicitly stating that MAGA killed Charlie Kirk and is victim blaming the assassination on Charlie’s movement. It’s definitionally evil and a malicious lie.”
What Kimmel said on Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Kimmel, during Monday night's live, he actually said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
However, Republican politicians and commentators pushed theories linking Robinson to the left, pointing to markings on the gun casings and claiming they promoted “trans ideology.”
On Tuesday, prosecutors revealed that Robinson had texted his transitioning partner saying he had “enough of [Charlie Kirk’s] hatred.”
Carr, however, suggested ABC and its parent company Disney could face severe consequences if Kimmel remained on air. “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” he said.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
“They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” he added.
Ari Cohn of FIRE said, “The FCC has no authority to control what a late night TV host can say, and the First Amendment protects Americans’ right to speculate on current events even if those speculations later turn out to be incorrect.”
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez echoed that view, writing on X, “An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship or control. We must stand firm against every attempt to silence dissent, punish satirists and government critics, and erode individual liberty.”
