Ted Cruz had a clear message for President Donald Trump’s top TV regulator: Cool it.
Three months ago, the Texas Republican had thrown himself into an intraparty fight defending Jimmy Kimmel’s right to free speech after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr pressured broadcasters to pull the comedian’s late-night show for comments he made after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Now, given the opportunity to prod Carr on Capitol Hill, Cruz scolded him in person.
“Democrat or Republican, we cannot have the government arbitrating truth or opinion,” Cruz told Carr on Wednesday.
Carr, a Trump loyalist, drew attacks from multiple senators in an FCC oversight hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. It was Congress' first chance to publicly grill Carr over his threats in September that broadcasters could face regulatory consequences for airing what conservatives saw as a misleading joke by Kimmel.
Cruz, at the time, called Carr's threat "dangerous as hell" and described it as behavior “right out of ‘Goodfellas.’” On Wednesday, Cruz made a pointed threat to strip Carr of the longstanding FCC powers he’s used to threaten media companies.
“Government officials threatening adverse consequences for disfavored content is an unconstitutional coercion that chills protected speech,” Cruz said.
Cruz proposed reining in or killing the FCC’s amorphous public interest authority over broadcasters — including what the Senate Commerce chair called its “wretched offspring” like the news distortion rule, the basis for many of Carr’s media threats throughout the year.
The FCC has for many decades had powers to ensure that companies operate in the public interest, and the rarely used news distortion rule — which Carr threatened to apply to Kimmel’s monologue — allows investigation into whether broadcasters are intentionally rigging or slanting the news.
Wednesday’s hearing opens the possibility of Cruz and Democrats working together to impose such curbs, although frequent bouts of partisan tension suggest the path ahead may not be easy.
The hearing otherwise fell along sharp partisan lines, with Democrats launching attacks on Carr, but no other Republican stepping up to question his threat against ABC and other broadcasters.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) argued the FCC lacks the authority to police “awful things” no matter where they’re said.
“It will not age well,” Schatz warned Carr of his behavior. “It will not age well on the conservative side of the aisle or the liberal side of the aisle.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked Carr if he would have threatened to yank Jimmy Kimmel off air had the comedian made the same remarks Trump did on Truth Social Monday about the killing of film director Rob Reiner and his wife, where the president attributed their deaths as the likely result of the “anger [Reiner] caused others” through “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
Carr blasted Klobuchar’s question. “Now you're trying to encourage me to police speech on the internet,” he said, adding that the FCC is merely enforcing broadcast licensing laws and public interest obligations.
Carr repeatedly defended his actions during several fiery exchanges with committee Democrats. He also stood by his Kimmel comments, and told senators he was simply following the law by reviving the FCC's role in ensuring broadcasters act in the public interest — a standard, Democrats frequently said, is far too open to interpretation. Carr also downplayed the effects of his Kimmel threats, blaming some of the criticism on Democratic projection and insisting it was a business decision for the broadcasters.
“I think the FCC has walked away from enforcing the public interest standard," he said to Klobuchar at one point. "And I don’t think that’s a good thing.”
The exchanges were a stark illustration of the political shifts around the free speech debate in Trump's Washington, where Republicans, who see themselves as standing against government interference during the Biden administration, have hesitated to criticize Carr for similar conduct under Trump.
In questioning Carr, Cruz also said broadcasters enjoy First Amendment speech protections no matter what Congress does: “So long as there is a public interest standard, shouldn’t it be understood to encompass robust First Amendment protections to ensure that the FCC cannot use it to chill speech?”
It’s not clear if other Republicans agree with Cruz. And Democrats are often wary of Cruz, a bombastic GOP firebrand, including Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who warned Wednesday that Cruz was making “another attempt to muddy the water” by bringing up a past Democratic letter suggesting a past FCC go after right-leaning Sinclair for its content.
Still, Cruz suggested he could see partnerships across the aisle, even as he expressed frustration that in the past, many Democrats didn’t speak up against perceived censorship attempts of conservatives.
“That would be a wonderful development,” Cruz told Kim. “I hope so.”
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