Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) applauded the decision by ABC/Disney to take comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show off the air “indefinitely,” but he went a bridge too far with MAGA supporters when he criticized FCC head Brendan Carr's heavy-handed tactics that reportedly precipitated the suspension.
Almost six hours before Kimmel’s show was put on hiatus, Carr told a podcaster, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
On his own podcast on Friday, Cruz balked at the Carr’s threat telling listeners, “Look, look, I like Brendan Carr. He’s a good guy. He’s the chairman of the FCC. I work closely with him. But what he said there is dangerous as hell. He says, ‘We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.’ And I got to say, that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas.’ That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”
“I think it is unbelievably dangerous for the government to put itself in the position of saying, ‘We’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying," he added.
After boasting on X that Monty Python founder John Cleese applauded his stance, Cruz opened the door to attacks from Trump’ 's supporters who have been enjoying Carr’s jihad on the mainstream media.
In the comments under Cruz’s X post linking to Clease, one angry commenter, who sees a conspiracy between the Charlie Kirk shooting and the attempt on Donald Trump’s life in Butler, PA, replied, “I had believed Ted Cruz would be an ideal SCOTUS Justice. I'm not so sure now.”
“Maga Patriot” Mary claimed, “I live in Texas and voted for @tedcruz. I now see him as I see @JohnCornyn. They both lost my vote. I no longer have a desire to follow Ted.“
“Using a public broadcast service to spew misleading and intentional lies during an ongoing investigation of a public assassination is not a free speech issue. It's a direct violation of the FCC license obligations. Carr should have revoked their license. It's that simple! Got it?” cautioned MAGA supporter Jeff Seaton.
“Ted, your weakness here is very disappointing, as the President told you this afternoon. You need clarify, and in the right way,” argued ICE fan Jeff.
Cheryl Bowers chipped in, “Not the tell you think it is. You stabbed us all in back. It’s weak and ineffective.”
“Common Sense Millennial” KoZ, was brief: “Man you suck.”