Lawmakers blasted the committee chair on December 17 over his criticism of ABC and Jimmy Kimmel after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and his response to President Donald Trump’s comments after the deaths of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner.
In his opening monologue on Sept. 15, Kimmel said Trump supporters were “desperately trying to characterize” Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man charged in Kirk’s murder, as “something other than one of them.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Kerr later made comments that were interpreted as threatening to revoke ABC’s license if Kimmel was not fired.
“This is a very serious issue for Disney right now,” Kerr said at the time. “You can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
ABC temporarily suspended Kimmel for his comments, but he has since returned to the late-night show and signed an extension to continue on the show until May 2027.
At a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, several senators highlighted bipartisan outrage over Carr’s comments, saying his words and actions contradict pre-2025 social media posts defending the First Amendment.
The first few hours of the hearing included tense moments, including an altercation with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and sharp comments from other lawmakers.
“You parroted President Trump and diminished the independence of the FCC,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said at one point.
Throughout the hearing, Carr argued that broadcast television is different from other media because licensees are required to abide by policies, including those related to news distortion and public interest standards.
He said the FCC’s actions under the Trump administration are just one example of enforcing the law in a way he says the previous administration failed to do.
Kimmel questions about Trump
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) anticipated some of the final themes in his opening comments.
He suggested that if his Democratic colleagues were to “blame” Carr on the “newfound religion” of the First Amendment and its free speech clause, they would be hypocritical if they also didn’t condemn actions taken by former President Joe Biden’s administration to curb misinformation on social media.
Carr agreed with Cruz’s assessment that the FCC’s rules “have been a weapon against conservatives in the past.”
Mr. Cruz called Mr. Kimmel’s comments “in bad taste,” but reiterated his earlier statements about his abhorrence of federal involvement in such matters.
“When government officials threaten negative repercussions for objectionable content, it is an unconstitutional coercion that chills protected speech,” Cruz said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar later addressed Kimmel’s comments in relation to President Trump’s comments after the Reiners were killed, in which Trump said Rob Reiner’s death was “reportedly due to anger that Mr. Trump provoked in others…a debilitating illness known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Klobuchar asked Kerr whether Trump’s comments were appropriate and what she would have done if Kimmel had made the same comments about Kirk.
Kerr rejected what Klobuchar said was an attempt to “encourage me to police speech on the internet,” reiterating that broadcast television is “fundamentally different” from other media.
Later in the hearing, Sen. Eric Schmidt (R-Missouri) echoed Cruz, calling his Democratic colleagues’ concerns about the First Amendment “extraordinary” and “ridiculous” given the actions taken under the Biden administration.
References to FCC independence removed from website
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) described his collegial relationship with Carr, telling the speaker that despite their disagreements, Carr was “praising you behind your back.” But Schatz said Kerr’s recent behavior has been “out of line.”
“It’s not going to get very old on either the conservative or liberal side,” he says. “This is not an American FCC action, so we hope it can be readjusted.”
Mr. Carr asked Mr. Schatz whether he had a problem with Democratic senators urging the FCC to investigate Sinclair Broadcasting Group in 2018 over their belief that it distorted the news, but Mr. Schatz said he had not signed the letter.
Markey said Carr is “currently the chairman of the Federal Censorship Board,” referring to the FCC’s investigation of a San Francisco radio station that reported on a federal immigration raid in January.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) asked Kerr to give a yes or no answer on whether the FCC is an independent agency.
When Mr. Carr began answering questions, Mr. Lujan replied that it was not a “trick question” and pointed to the FCC’s website, which declared itself an independent agency.
Kerr ultimately said the FCC is “not formally an independent agency” because the president has the power to fire commissioners.
As of Dec. 17 afternoon, the website described the FCC as “an agency of the United States government with oversight by Congress.” The website said in October that the FCC is an “independent U.S. government agency with oversight from Congress.”
An FCC spokesperson told USA TODAY that the website and materials “need to be updated” and that such updates will continue “to ensure they reflect the position of the FCC’s new leadership.”
Contributor: Anthony Robredo
Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. please contact her bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded by the Freedom Forum in collaboration with our journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
