Texas Sen. Ted Cruz just turned a Senate hearing into a masterclass on defending free speech with a side of cinematic flair, the Daily Caller reported.
During a fiery Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday, Cruz, a staunch Republican, took on FCC Chair Brendan Carr over a prior warning to Disney about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s controversial remarks, igniting a broader debate on government overreach into private media.
This saga kicked off earlier when Kimmel made tasteless comments about conservative figure Charlie Kirk, leading to a suspension by ABC, Disney’s subsidiary.
Back in September, Cruz stood up for Kimmel’s right to speak, however crude his words, arguing that any consequences should come from ABC, not government pressure.
Enter FCC Chair Carr, who had warned Disney they could handle the Kimmel situation “the easy way or the hard way,” as he told interviewer Benny Johnson—a line Cruz didn’t let slide.
“That’s right out of ‘Goodfellas,’” Cruz fired back during the hearing, likening Carr’s words to a mobster’s shakedown of a defenseless shopkeeper.
Cruz didn’t mince words, calling out what he sees as a dangerous precedent of government officials strong-arming private companies into silencing voices.
He acknowledged Kimmel’s remarks as distasteful but insisted that the decision to discipline or drop the comedian rests solely with ABC and its affiliates, not Washington bureaucrats.
Several Republican senators echoed Cruz’s alarm, warning that such threats from the FCC could cast a chilling shadow over free expression in media.
Cruz also took a swipe at past Democratic silence on similar issues, pointing to what he described as the Biden administration’s pressure on social media platforms to suppress conservative viewpoints.
“I welcome them, now having discovered the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights,” Cruz quipped, extending an olive branch to Democrats who joined in criticizing Carr’s stance.
Still, he maintained that neither party should play referee over truth or opinion, a principle he sees as non-negotiable for a free society.
Carr, for his part, held firm, agreeing on the importance of free speech but stressing his obligation to follow Communications Act guidelines on broadcast content and public interest.
Democratic senators, including Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Hawaii’s Brian Schatz, piled on with their own critiques, questioning whether Carr would target others for similar provocative statements.
Klobuchar pressed Carr on whether he’d try to yank Kimmel off the air if the comedian had echoed controversial remarks akin to those by former President Donald Trump, a hypothetical Carr dismissed as an attempt to push him into policing online discourse.
