Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) condemned Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr after he pushed Disney to take late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
In a Sunday interview on NBC, host Kristen Welker noted that Carr had reacted to the shooting of Charlie Kirk by threatening Disney.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said at the time. "These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
Paul called the remarks "absolutely inappropriate."
"Brennan Carr has got no business weighing in on this," the Republican senator insisted. "But people have to also realize that despicable comments, you have the right to say them, but you don't have the right to employment."
"You can be fired," he continued. "So the FCC should have nothing to do with it."
"The government's got no business in it, and the FCC was wrong to weigh in, and I'll fight any attempt by the government to get involved with speech."
Panelists on Fox News worried that President Donald Trump was giving political "fodder" to Democrats after he launched a new threat against his perceived enemies.
In a post to Truth Social over the weekend, Trump accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of "all talk, no action" because she had not prosecuted former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"I do struggle with this in all honesty," Fox News host Tomi Lahren admitted. "Not that I don't think a lot of these people need to be investigated to the fullest extent. I do."
"For me, sometimes it's like don't give the left the talking point of political weaponization, even though those of us at the table know the baloney and we understand," she continued. "I don't like giving fodder to the left in this way."
Co-host Joey Jones agreed: "Like even on the fact that Jimmy Kimmel was taken off air, and there's this like conservative undertone or libertarian undertone. Like, hey, listen, we get it, but let's not be them and let's not take him off air."
Jones, however, said that Trump deserved "grace" to verbally attack his opponents after the death of Charlie Kirk.
"Of course, as president, if he takes actions I don't believe in, that's different," he added.
President Donald Trump suggested that the U.S. military might kill Venezuelan fishermen in an effort to target drug traffickers.
During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Peter Doocy asked Trump if it was more dangerous to be the captain of a cartel drug boat or a late-night TV talk show host.
"They're both in trouble, although [Fox News host] Greg Gutfeld's doing great," the president replied. "We have the water drugs, I call them the water drugs, pretty much stopped."
"In fact, I think water fishing, I think almost anything we have to get into a boat right now in that area would not be doing too well," he advised. "We have to stop the drugs from coming into our country and killing our people."
"So when you feel badly for somebody that gets blown away, you have to remember they're killing thousands of people."
During a rant about late-night hosts, President Donald Trump veered off subject to complain about Fox News polling.
In an interview on Sunday, Fox News host Peter Doocy told Trump that critics were blaming him for ABC's decision to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
The president insisted that FCC Chair Brendan Carr was a "fantastic patriot."
"97% of the things they say about me on television are negative," Trump complained. "And how do you win if that's the case? The credibility of television's way down. Most television, you guys are doing a lot better."
Trump, however, suggested he was not happy with the network's polls.
"I disagree with your pollsters, because I've always proven to be right on that," he remarked. "I would say your pollsters, I don't think your pollsters are any good on Fox, but generally speaking, and the anchors are in every case, they're phenomenal."
A recent Fox News poll found that 54% of voters disapproved of the job Trump was doing as president, while 46% approved.
Fox News host Maria Bartiromo insisted that God urged her to get closer to Charlie Kirk in the days before he died.
In a Sunday interview with Bartiromo, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued that "the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread today to a bigger audience than just about any event in our lifetime" because of Kirk's memorial in Arizona.
"You know, I really do think — I said this last weekend — God wanted me to know Charlie better in the last few months," Bartiromo remarked. "I've been speaking to Charlie more. I went on his show. He came on my show."
"I think his way of communicating and just ensuring that it doesn't get hostile, and you just having a talk and a conversation about the issues and a debate, God wanted me to know more about how Charlie did it," she asserted.
For his part, Cruz claimed that Democrats were full of "anger and hate."
"Today's Democrat Party defines itself by anger and hatred of Donald Trump," he told the Fox News host. "After Charlie was murdered, the number of leftists, whether Democrat politicians or left-wing activists or teachers or professors who celebrated It was grotesque, the celebrations and the glorifications. And I will tell you, this is a problem that is overwhelmingly on the left."
Comedian Bill Maher is taking heat from MAGA after comments he made on his show.
On his latest broadcast, Maher discussed the Minnesota church shooter, who was known as Robin Westman but was born as Robert Westman.
"That's not why we got what we got. Trans is not the cause of this," Maher said, suggesting that becoming transgender have been one of many attempts to "fix her chronic unhappiness." He added, "The joke's on you" to anyone who seeks to interpret the shooter's manifesto at this stage.
The conservative outlet The Post Millennial wrote, "While respecting the pronouns of the Minnesota killer of Catholic schoolchildren, Bill Maher says 'the joke's on you' if you try to decipher a political motive."
MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec said, "BREAKING: Bill Maher attacks conservatives for saying the shooter being trans had anything to do with the Catholic children murders in Minneapolis."
This led Trump ally Roger Stone to chime in, "Bill Maher is a scrawny piece of human garbage who is not even faintly amusing without a platoon of comedy writers. A pompous a------."
Stone then added, "When I wipe my a-- what's left on the toilet paper has more talent than he does."
Self-identified MAGA mother Ceara asked, "Who’s going to have the pleasure of fact checking him? We can’t allow people that ignore facts to make such statements about tragic deaths. Did he do his own research before talking about this?"
John Connell, another self-identified MAGA user, said Sunday, "Ever capitulating to the left. What a joke."
Local GOP chairman Bo French said, "I am so tired of my normiecon friends talking about how great Bill Maher has been lately. 'He is so reasonable now.' LOL. No, he is a leftist at heart and can't even admit Charlie's shooter is a leftist too," he wrote Sunday. "Despicable."
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said she opposed a Republican House resolution honoring Charlie Kirk because he "targeted people of color."
During a Sunday interview on CNN, host Dana Bash asked Crockett why she was one of 58 House Democrats who voted against the resolution.
"For the most part, the only people that voted no were people of color," the Democratic lawmaker explained. "Because the rhetoric that Charlie Kirk continuously put out there was rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color."
"And so it is unfortunate that even our colleagues could not see anything how harmful his rhetoric was specifically to us," she noted.
Crockett recalled that Kirk had recently spoken negatively about her on his podcast.
"So if there was any way that I was gonna honor somebody who decided that they were just gonna negatively talk about me and proclaim that I was somehow involved in the great white replacement," she observed. "Yeah, I'm not honoring that kind of stuff, especially as a civil rights attorney and understanding how I got to Congress knowing that there were people that died, people that were willing to die that work to make sure that voices like mine could exist in this place."
"So to me, just like we wanted to make sure that those Confederate relics were taken down, the idea of a new age relic being propped up was something that I just could not subscribe to," she added. "And it is unfortunate that more of my colleagues, even on my side of the aisle, could not see the amount of harm that this man was attempting to inflict upon our communities."
Alex Acosta, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, showed "no remorse" for negotiating a lenient plea deal with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a lawmaker who attended his testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
On Sunday, Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) told MSNBC that Acosta showed "a callous disregard for the victims, the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes" during the closed-door meeting with committee members.
"Mr. Acosta shows no remorse for the sweetheart deal that he signed off on for Jeffrey Epstein that ultimately allowed Epstein to continue raping and abusing girls and women," he explained. "It's a continuation of this tragedy."
The Oversight Committee was expected to release a transcript of Acosta's testimony to the public in the coming months.
Acosta served as labor secretary during President Donald Trump's first administration before resigning amid controversy over the Epstein plea deal.
Republicans are seeing a "warning light," according to a journalist.
Bloomberg opinion editor Ron Brownstein, a senior political analyst, was welcomed to CNN, where the host flagged a new poll that revealed a "significant drop" in how Americans are seeing the direction of the country, "especially for Republicans." The poll was taken in the wake of the murder of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
"What does that tell you about the electorate?" the host asked Brownstein.
"Politically," he said, this is "obviously a warning light for the party in power."
He noted that, for multiple presidencies, a general dissatisfaction has been taken out on the president. Going into 2026, according to Brownstein, this polling give a sense of "vulnerability" for Republicans.
President Donald Trump's lack of "moral clarity" when it comes to Russia's war on Ukraine is "infuriating," a Republican congressman admitted.
GOP Rep. Don Bacon was asked by CNN's Manu Raju about whether Trump had the "moral character" to be president. While Bacon didn't answer the direct question, instead confessing to a desire to "skirt" around it, he did hint he has "private thoughts" that might be more "judgmental."
"I think I'll skirt around that. I gotta be careful about judging," he said. "I'm very reluctant to be judgmental publicly, maybe I got my private thoughts."
But Bacon did say something about Trump rubbed him the wrong way, specifically how Trump has numerous times asked why Ukraine "started" the war with Russia.
"That does infuriate me," he said. "It does bother me." He added that Trump must not have an accurate picture of what's going on in the global conflict.
According to a former Southern District of New York prosecutor, FBI Director Kash Patel was playing fast and loose with the truth during his congressional testimony this past week, in particular when when he was asked about the notorious Jeffrey Epstein files.
Patel’s job performance was put under the microscope this past week in two highly contentious hearings as he tried to fend off questions about the convicted pedophile as well as his conduct overseeing the shooting of far-right gadfly Charlie Kirk.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” former assistant U.S. Attorney Kristy Greenberg took exception to Patel’s claims about the Epstein files and why he won’t release them in their entirety.
“That narrative makes no sense as to the release of the files at large,” she told the co-hosts. “What I'd say is Kash Patel said a few things –– first, he said, I legally cannot turn over the Epstein files, the judges are preventing me from doing it, court orders are preventing me from doing it. Not true.”
“There's actually a court order from the Epstein judge that clearly says you can release the Epstein files,” she elaborated. “That would be actually the best way to inform the public. It would be the way that –– rather than the grand jury testimony, that's a snippet of hearsay, This is everything. This is interview reports, this is search warrants, and that is material that is not protected by secrecy rules.”
“And so that is material that can be completely disclosed to the American people,” she explained. “And the logical party to do that is the government. Then he said, ‘Well, we don't, we're not in the business of putting out information that's not credible.’ But you put out Ghislaine Maxwell's interview! And your Department of Justice said that the number two [Todd Blanche], who interviewed her, said he couldn't make a credibility finding, which, by the way, she was not credible.”
“She quite clearly lied in that interview. But if you're going to put out one, how do you not how do you justify not putting out what the victims have said? It doesn't make sense,” she concluded.
Van Jones joined Anderson Cooper on "Anderson Cooper 360" late Friday to praise Kirk's after the two feuded on social media over the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death last month while riding a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"The suspect is a Black man, and Charlie Kirk and Van got into a public sparring match online," noted Cooper. "Kirk claimed the murder happened because she was white. Van denounced that as completely unfounded. Kirk then sent out what Van calls a firehose of tweets challenging his argument, which Van says sparked death threats against him."
But it was what happened next that led Jones to praise Kirk, who was shot dead last week. Kirk reached out to Jones in a direct message on X.
"Hey Van, I mean it. I'd love to have you on my show to have a respectful conversation about crime and race. I would be a gentleman, as I know you would be as well. We can disagree about the issues agreeably," Kirk said.
The message was sent Sept. 9 — a day before he was shot and killed. Jones saw the message the following day after the shooting.
"I mean, this is extraordinary. So this was received the day before he was killed?" asked Cooper.
"Yeah. Look, I mean, we were beefing. We were going at it online, on air. And then after he died, after he was murdered, my team called and said, 'Van, he was trying to reach you, man.'" said Jones.
Jones said he was sitting on the message, which called for being "gentlemen together" and disagreeing "agreeably."
"So I'm sitting on this, and I'm watching the whole country talk about civil war, censorship, justifying murder about this guy? This guy is reaching out to his mortal enemy, saying we need to be gentlemen, sit down together and disagree agreeably. And the next day, he's killed," said Jones.
Jones said after thinking it over, he said they'd attend a memorial weekend for Kirk.
"We disagreed — everybody knows we were not friends, ok? At all. But you praise the good when it's time to memorialize somebody. And what he did — nd I didn't even know it — was good. He was not for censorship. He was not for civil war. He was not for violence. He was for dialogue. Open debate and dialogue. Even with me. Even with me," said Jones.
Jones said that while he wouldn't have appeared on Kirk's show, he might've invited Kirk onto Cooper's show, called him and started the process of debate.
"I wanted to beat Charlie Kirk in a debate. I didn’t want somebody to shoot him. That’s how we do it in America," said Jones.
Republicans are knowingly leading their party into political disaster by backing President Donald Trump as he and his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, jawbone Disney into suspending late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel for criticizing the GOP's response to the slaying of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, argued former Rep. Max Rose (D-NY) on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" Friday.
A few conservatives are crying foul over the whole situation, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) lauding the firing but calling Carr's threats against Disney "dangerous as hell" and akin to mob boss tactics — but, noted anchor Alicia Menendez, "Heis not the only Republicanwho's been talking about this," and most have said they're totally unbothered by even that aspect of things.
Menendez played numerous clips of Republicans refusing to condemn the situation, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) flatly denying there was any government intervention against speech and saying, "I think Jimmy Kimmel wastaken off air because he's anunfunny activist ... this isn't thegovernment model. This is, this is Disney."
"Okay, I just want to followtheir logic for a secondbecause it's not like he — let'ssay he was unfunny, right? It'snot that he turned unfunny onthe same day that the FCC chairjust happens to say, 'we can dothis the easy way or the hardway,' and the next hour changestheir mind," Menendez said, turning to Rose.
"Oh, they are so desperate for thesubject to change here, becausethis tap-dancing is reallyobvious," said Rose. "But what's alsoobvious is just the dramaticabout-shift they have madeabout cancel culture. I mean,these were the folks that weresaying in an election less thana year ago that the other sideare snowflakes. The other sidewould want to cancel everythingyou're saying. All this wokestuff, one could actually argue,was a relatively significantissue in the last election. Andnow, just because Donald Trumphas said something — theyhaven't read one poll thatshows this Jimmy Kimmel issueis a good one for them. In fact,it's obviously massivelyunpopular. But just because Donald Trump said something,they are all falling in lineand falling on their sword."
"Soit's yet another indicationthat they will even commitpolitical suicide, just instrict subservience to him asfully-owned subsidiaries ofDonald Trump and MAGA Incorporated," Rose added.
