Sen. Ted Cruz warned Friday that conservatives would come to regret using state power to silence Jimmy Kimmel, saying that such power will be turned against them in a future Democratic administration.
Appearing on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the Republican senator said he “hates what Kimmel said” and he is “thrilled that he was fired.”
But he also said that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sounded like a “mafioso” when he threatened to go after broadcast licenses in response to Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s killer.
“That will end up bad for conservatives,” Cruz said. “There will come a time when a Democrat wins again, wins the White House. They will get rid of everything America that’s conservative. They’ll get rid of every podcast. They’ll get rid of everything. They will silence us. They will use this power and they will use it ruthlessly and that is dangerous.”
Kimmel was pulled off the air on Wednesday, hours after Carr threatened to “take action” against ABC affiliates if Disney did not act. There are as yet no plans to return him to the airwaves.
Kimmel touched off conservative outrage in his monologue on Monday when he said that the “MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
President Trump has expressed his full support for Carr. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, he issued his own warning to broadcasters that they should lose their licenses for being critical of him.
Cruz, who lost to Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, agreed that Kimmel’s remarks were out of bounds and that the corporate media is slanted against conservatives.
“They are dishonest,” he said. “They are liars.”
And he noted that Kimmel has “mocked me so many times I cannot count.” But he argued it is “unbelievably dangerous” to try to shut down speech the government doesn’t like.
“It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel,” he said. “But when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it. And so again, I like Brendan Carr, but we should not be in this business. We should denounce it. It’s fine to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable, it was disgraceful and he should be off air, but we shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air. That’s a real mistake.”
Cruz also said that Kimmel has become “profoundly unfunny” after Trump’s victory, which he said “broke late-night comedy.”
“His brain melted when Donald Trump came into the White House,” Cruz said. “It is now unwatchable.”