[The following has been excerpted from an AP liveblog of Thursday’s events to focus on discussion of the unprecedented suspension of late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.]
Free speech experts said Kimmel could have a strong legal case against Carr, especially after the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in May that public officials can’t use their power to punish speech.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote then that “the First Amendment prohibits government officials from wielding their power selectively to punish or suppress speech, directly or…through private intermediaries.”
In comments Wednesday before Kimmel’s suspension, Carr said, “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Alex Abdo of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, said Carr’s comments read like “the definition of unconstitutional coercion.”
But Kimmel may not want to sue for “all kinds of business and even contractual reasons,” said Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor.
Even so, Volokh said, “This just isn’t something the chair of the FCC ought to be doing, policing comedy shows.”
Senate Democratic leader calls for Brendan Carr’s ouster
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling for the resignation or firing of Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr following his threats that may have led to ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
“What Brendan Carr is doing is despicable,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a social media video. “What he did to Jimmy Kimmel he is doing to person after person, to network after network — intimidating them and threatening them.”
Schumer called on President Donald Trump to fire Carr if he doesn’t resign.
Democrats introduce bill to protect free speech while decrying Kimmel’s suspension
Congressional Democrats are denouncing the Trump administration’s threats against political critics in the strongest terms, saying that it strikes at the fundamental right to free speech.
A group of House members and senators unveiled a bill Thursday that would bolster free speech protections against government officials. Though the legislation is unlikely to gain traction in the Republican-controlled Congress, Democrats at the news conference harshly criticized the Trump administration for pressuring ABC towards the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show after his comments on the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.
“It’s repulsive, repulsive that the Trump administration is perversely using this awful death to supercharge their long-standing campaign against political opponents,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
GOP Sen. Cramer says ABC needed ‘a little bit of a scare’
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer told reporters that he wasn’t concerned that a “veiled threat” from the FCC may have led to ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
“If that’s what scares off ABC, maybe they need a little bit of a scare,” Cramer said Thursday.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal called on networks “to be standing up and showing some backbone.” Blumenthal called Kimmel’s suspension a censorship that could “spread like cancer.”
“It’s the blunt gagging of somebody expressing views in the public square,” Blumenthal said. “And if it’s not halted now, it will just continue to mount and spread, and ultimately we will be the losers.”
Erika Kirk will serve as Turning Point’s next CEO
Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, will serve as the next leader of his Turning Point organization.
The group’s board announced Thursday that Erika Kirk has been unanimously elected to be the group’s new CEO and board chair.
“In prior discussions, Charlie expressed to multiple executives that this is what he wanted in the event of his death,” The group said in a social media post announcing the decision.
Obama calls Kimmel’s show suspension ‘dangerous’
Former President Barack Obama said the Trump administration is taking “cancel culture” to a “new and dangerous level,” as he weighed in on the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show for comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing.
Obama said on X that the current administration had complained for years about “cancel culture” from the left, but is now “routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
The former president shared a news report about how the FCC chairman had said he could hold ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.
Kimmel suggested during his Monday evening monologue that the suspect in Kirk’s killing, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. Authorities say the 22-year-old grew up in a conservative household in southern Utah but his parents told investigators he had turned politically left and pro-LGBTQ rights in the last year.
Trump argues Jimmy Kimmel’s show was pulled because of ‘bad ratings’
“And he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump said.
The president was asked if free speech is more under attack in Britain or the United States. He repeated his view that Kimmel isn’t talented. Kimmel has sharply criticized Trump and Trump’s administration in many of his routines.
“He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump said. “So, you know, you could call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Trump says he wants to finalize TikTok deal with Xi on Friday
The president said at a news conference said that the U.S. was getting a “fee plus” for brokering the sale of TikTok assets to an American buyer, adding that he personally uses the social media video app “very legitimately.”
The China-associated app has raised national security concerns, prompting a law requiring its owner ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations or have the app banned. Trump has extended the ban deadline multiple times since January. Trump is slated to speak Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Trump said that the assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk first encouraged him to get on TikTok.
Trump says Charlie Kirk could have been president
“Some people said he might be president someday. I told him, I said, ‘Charlie, I think you have a good shot at someday being president.’”
Trump said the conservative activist was “heinously assassinated for speaking his mind.” He plans to attend his memorial service Sunday in Arizona.
House Democratic leaders demand FCC chair ‘resign immediately’ after Jimmy Kimmel suspension
House Democratic leaders are calling for the resignation of Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr and accusing him of “bullying” ABC into suspending the late-night host.
In a joint statement, the leaders — including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — said the move was part of Trump and Republicans’ effort to wage a “war on the First Amendment.”
“The censoring of artists and cancellation of shows is an act of cowardice,” the statement read.
They also vowed to investigate the suspension, even if it requires the “unleashing of congressional subpoena power.”
