By Donald Trump,Forbes Staff,Sara Dorn

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Democratic leaders are alleging the decision by ABC (owned by Disney) to pull talk show host Jimmy Kimmel off the air was largely orchestrated by Donald Trump and his Federal Communications Commission head, Brendan Carr, with some calling it a possible “corrupt pay-to-play scheme.”

Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr testifies before the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on oversight of the FCC, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on May 21, 2025. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images

Carr “engaged in the corrupt abuse of power” and “disgraced the office he holds by bullying ABC” and “should resign immediately,” according to a Thursday statement signed by six Democrat leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.

Speculating whether the move was “part of a corrupt pay-to-play scheme,” they threatened to issue a congressional subpoena against “media companies” to “learn the truth” about why Kimmel was indefinitely suspended Wednesday.

The Democrats did not clarify what scheme they were talking about, but Nexstar Media Group—which pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its ABC-affiliated stations, leading ABC parent organization the Walt Disney Company to nix the show—seeks FCC approval of a $6.2 billion merger with the broadcast group Tegna.

Carr threatened potential consequences for media companies behind Kimmel’s show, saying on a podcast Wednesday that certain companies would need to “take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Several other prominent Democrats also described the Trump administration’s intervention in the Kimmel controversy as a blatant overreach of free speech, with former President Barack Obama tweeting Thursday, “after years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNN Thursday “we know there was federal interference,” adding “that truly undermines the whole premise of the First Amendment,” while Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., compared the Trump administration to “autocracies” and said “Trump and his allies seem to want to shut down speech that they don’t like to hear.”

Carr made a veiled threat that the FCC could reject CBS parent company Paramount Global’s proposed merger with Skydance earlier this year over edits CBS made to an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris last year. Trump sued CBS claiming it trimmed Harris’ response to a question to cast her in a more favorable light. CBS settled the lawsuit with Trump for $16 million and Carr subsequently approved the merger. Carr has also opened investigations into several broadcasters’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Key Background

ABC pulled Kimmel off the air “indefinitely Wednesday shortly after Nexstar announced it wouldn’t run the program. Neither ABC nor Nexstar specifically mentioned Kimmel’s Kirk comments in explaining the decision, but Nexstar said it was based on comments Kimmel made that were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located.” Kimmel sparked a wave of backlash among conservatives when he said on his show Monday “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.” The Trump administration celebrated the decision, with Carr thanking the company for “doing the right thing” in a social media post Wednesday. Trump called it “Great News for America” in a Truth Social post, and told reporters Thursday “Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”

Further Reading

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel ‘Indefinitely’ After Charlie Kirk Comments: Here’s What He Said (Forbes)

Kimmel’s Charlie Kirk Monologues Surge In Viewership After Suspension—As ABC Leaves Up Video Clips (Forbes)

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