Demands FCC chair ‘resign immediately’

Jeffries condemns Kimmel shutdown, demands FCC chair ‘resign immediately’

Jeffries and other House Democratic leaders said Brendan Carr had engaged in “the corrupt abuse of power” by “forcing” ABC to “bend the knee” to President Donald Trump in canceling Kimmel’s show.

Faith Wardwell

Congressional Democratic leaders called for Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to resign “immediately” in a statement Thursday morning, after Disney indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show.

In a joint statement, signed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.) and other Democratic leaders, the group said Carr had engaged in “the corrupt abuse of power” by “forcing” ABC to “bend the knee” to President Donald Trump in canceling Kimmel’s show.

“House Democrats will make sure the American people learn the truth, even if that requires the relentless unleashing of congressional subpoena power,” they said in the statement.

The fiery rebuke comes after Carr threatened ABC and its local affiliates — which carry Kimmel’s show — on Wednesday suggesting that the FCC could punish stations if they didn’t act against Kimmel.

“These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr said on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast.

Major ABC affiliate owners, including Nexstar and Sinclair, had also criticized Kimmel’s comments following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, saying they would not carry his show.

During his late-night show on Monday, Kimmel said conservatives were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.”

The Democratic leaders said in the statement that the censoring of artists or cancellation of shows was “an act of cowardice” that they said indicated a “war on the First Amendment.”

“This will not be forgotten,” they wrote.