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GOP Sen. and Trump ally Ted Cruz warns conservatives will regret it.
By Paul Bean
Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Becca Balint took to their social media platforms to blame the Trump administration’s FCC Chair, Brenden Carr for ABC’s removal of Jimmy Kimmel from the late night comedy slot.
Announced yesterday, Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show is returning to ABC tonight (9/23) after a tense standoff from remarks he made about the Trump administration’s response to the killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. About a quarter of the ABC stations in the United States won’t be airing it.
“I don’t often agree with Ted Cruz, but he’s right about this,” wrote Sen. Sanders on X Saturday in respobnse to a statement made by Ted Cruz to the Washington Post.
“It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel,” said Cruz. “But when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.”
The controversy began after Kimmel said on his show last week that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying” to characterize the suspect in Mr. Kirk’s killing, Tyler Robinson, as “anything other than one of them.” The situation escalated when FCC chairman Carr said during an interview with podcaster Benny Johson that Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people.
Carr said on the podcast that “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” in reference to ABC and their affiliates. “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..Frankly I think it’s past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney, and say ‘We are going to preempt – we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out,’” he finished.
Rep. Becca Balint also responded with her own criticism of the firing of Kimmel posting this video with the caption, “This is what’s really behind ABC removing Jimmy Kimmel. Corruption.”
“I know a lot of you are very alarmed by what you saw yesterday with Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air by ABC…I need you to follow the money,” said Balint in the video. “So you’ve got a situation right now where companies that have mergers before the FCC are trying to please Trump in order to get their mergers approved, and that’s sort of, I believe, at the heart of what’s going on here. You’ve got Nexstar that’s trying to acquire another media company called Tegna, and they’re the ones that put out that message that they were going to drop Jimmy Kimmel from their TV stations.”
Yesterday, Disney announced that Kimme’s late-night show is returning to ABC on Tuesday night but about a quarter of the ABC stations in the United States won’t be airing it. The local stations Nexstar and Sinclair, two major owners of local ABC stations who combined own 60+ stations, said they would be ending Kimmel’s segment indefinitely. Nexstar said it would replace the comedy show with news programming for the time being.
Vermont’s ABC affiliate, WVNY, is not owned by either Nexstar or Sinclair. The station is owned by Mission Broadcasting
Balint continued in her video posted to X explaining, “They then pressured ABC to fall in line because they want to curry favor with the Trump administration through their FCC chair, Brendan Carr…All of us in Congress have to keep our eyes on these mega mergers and how they are being used to stifle our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech. This is dangerous, and we’re going to investigate.”
Last week while in the UK on an official state visit President Trump said, “Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings, more than anything else…And he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk…Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago. So, you know, you could call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Senator Sanders also posted the following image to his X page over the weekend with the caption “Here’s a radical idea.”
Many commenters were quick to remark that Sanders was not as concerned about the first amendment when his political opponent, Donald Trump, was censored and removed from social media back in 2020. “Bernie, where were you when the deep state was pressuring social media companies to shadow ban your political opponents?” wrote user @rallywithgalli. “Everyone has free speech. But if you have an FCC license and violate the rules you may have consequences. Get the issue straight,” wrote user @getthefact999.
Former US president Barack Obama responded to the incident, writing on X, “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. This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
FCC Chairman Carr has denied claims that Kimmel was initially fired because of direct pressure from the Trump administration and him specifically. “Jimmy Kimmel is in the situation that he’s in because of his ratings, not because of anything that’s happened at the federal government level,” said Carr.
Carr also cited CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which the network claimed was “a purely financial decision.”
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Categories: National News
They need to spend more time trying to find out the facts about the Charlie Kirk murder. Comment from Richard Day.
Kimmel is the luckiest TV personality, not many people knew of him nor watched his show until this, classic case of ” no such thing as bad PR “. He will live to bore again with his mundane program.
Bernie needs to spend more time worrying about the everyday items that are destroying the State he supposedly represents, Vermont like High Taxes, Affordable Housing competitive non Government dictated healthcare and the undue influence of national teachers organizations on our children and why they are leaving the State on competing school and not chasing National Issues and rhetoric.
President Trump could come out and say the sun rises in the East and Sets in the West, Becca and Bernie would say it rises in the West and Sets in the East!
I actually agree on this. Let Kimmel stay in his slot. When fewer people watch his show, the network will move it or cancel it if we’re lucky. This one goes to the people.
Government never ordered him off the air, it was a business decision, unlike the orders from the Autopen Biden Whitehouse to silence any decent on airwaves, You Tube, Google, Twitter, Facebook et el that showed any disagreement to the official quasi scientific as we see in retrospect on COVID policy. Including deplatforming and taking away livelihoods of companies that made the smallest comments in this direction regardless of the nature of the content. An inventor of the medical technology at use of the time was ordered by Biden Autopen Administration deplatformed since he didn’t agree of the technology being used as a vaccine. Not to mention the appointment by Biden or Autopen of an Office of Information and appointment of a disinformation czar.
Where were these people during the CornPop Biden Administration? People got kicked off Twitter, Facistbook and YouTube. The creditably of all of them is questionable. CornPop even hired a czar to suppress information. YouTube and Google just admitted to suppressing people at CornPop’s request.
No comments from Mr Sanders & Ms Balint?
September 23, 2025 letter from Alphabet (Google/YouTube) to the US House Judiciary Committee:
The Biden Administration and Alphabet
– Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies.
– While the Company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press the Company to remove non-violative user-generated content.
– As online platforms, including Alphabet, grappled with these decisions, the Administration’s officials, including President Biden, created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding
– It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content, and the Company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds.
WHERE WAS BERNIE THEN?
THIS GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION AFFECTED THOUSANDS!
Source: https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2025-09-23-letter-to-hjc.pdf
What a leftwing circus! 1) Where were Balint and the Bern when Biden censored FB for allowing the TRUTH about the Hunter laptop to be circulated? Where were they when people telling the TRUTH about Covid-19 vaccines, masks, social distancing, or hydroxychloroquine were censored? When Trump was banned from Twitter? 2) Trump and the feds didn’t fire Kimmel, so their babbling is blather.
Kimmel just apologized for his comments last night. This old gentleman I once worked for told me that ‘If you have to apologize for something you said, then you shouldn’t have said it’.
He did NOT apologize!!!! He tried to rationalize and spin it. But he did not say “I apologize”. He did not say “I’m sorry”. He danced around and made it about him!!! He is a disgusting excuse for a human.
Okay, I didn’t read his rant, just the headlines that called it an apology. Sorry if this was incorrect.
I am aware of the irony of my comment and subsequent comment.
There is an old saying, when a person climbs on a saddle on a horse with an agenda and ends up facing the wrong way they become a mirror reflection of themselves. This murder of Charlie Kirk was a ritual assassination and number 33 is all over this and in plain site. When you bite the hand that feeds you, bad things happen. Comment from Richard Day.
Never watched Kimmel and I ain’t starting now. I don’t give a lot of care as to what celebrities say about things they know little about.
With his share of the audience dwindling, I would think that it will come down to advertising dollars, and how to spread them about for the best return. How long will the sponsors continue to lose money on a floundering show ?
These two COMMUNISTS only quote the Constitution when it suits them not when it applies to conservatives who they tried to shut up. Remember Nina Jankowicz and the misinformation board they tried to censor us with
1st Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Well guess what Bernie & Becca, Congress didn’t make any law to prohibit Jimmy Kimmel’s speech, or you would have voted on it. He was fired by his employer for lying. He could have gone anywhere he wanted to so he could lie some more.
You Tube, Spotify, Sub Stack, his own channel like Tucker Carlson. He could steal a milk carton from the back of any grocery store and stand on it and speak if he wanted to go old school. There is even a late nigh opening on CBS.
The FCC recommended he be removed for violation. Same goes for swearing on a CB, you can get fined. Not to mention his facts were preemptive and false, at highly inappropriate. Shame on you Jimmy Kimmell. ABC pulled him, not Trump. You can say anything you want, but your employer doesn’t have to keep you. Bernie and Balint are at best ignorant, most likely challenged, communist, leftist, socialist morons. This state needs a swamp drain installed. VOTE them out Vermomt before it’s too late.
Sanders, Balint blame Trump for EVERYTHING!
When Charlie Kirk was giving his speech, before he was shot, a photo of him and three hats were shown with the number 47 on each hat. 4 plus 7 equals 11 3 times 11 equals 33. Odd how things keep showing up. Comment from Richard Day.
Sanders and Ballint are two nut jobs period!! And that is the bottom line!!
We need to restore all leftist rights to lie through their teeth, trigger 20 somethings to shoot and kill at will and dehumanize police and spokes people on the right. Bernie and Balint need to be mindful. Their hateful rhetoric runs both ways.
Kimbal got his start by being a pervert on the man show. How many women sticking up for him have seen this show that used to be advertised in Hustler magazine?