A conservative commentator faced pushback from fellow panelists on "CNN This Morning" for justifying the second indictment against former FBI Director James Comey and the federal investigation of TV stations that broadcast Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show.

The Department of Justice secured an indictment against Comey for a social media post spelling out the message "86 47," which prosecutors say represented a violent threat against President Donald Trump, and the Federal Communications Commission, which has directed Walt Disney Co. to file early license renewal applications for its ABC affiliates after Trump and his wife called on the company to fire Kimmel.

"Well, first of all, I just got to say I do feel bad for all my Democratic friends who have to pretend that Jimmy Kimmel is funny," laughed conservative activist Terry Schilling. "He's a far cry from David Letterman."

"Hey, we're not here for comedy critiques," interrupted host Audie Cornish. "Okay, I'm here for free speech arguments. What is the argument now that Republicans are in power about how to deal with free speech?"

Schilling changed his demeanor and argued that Trump's critics were playing a game.

"Well, the reality is, is that they're playing a game," Schilling said. "Jimmy Kimmel is obviously playing a game. He's getting as close to that line as possible to cause controversy, to get more eyeballs. But the reality is, is if you make jokes about the president's death, you get looked at, you get investigated. The FBI, the Secret Service comes to your door. But this, it's just kind of annoying to me because you have James Comey and, and Kimmel like running from the bit. If you're going to make the joke, commit to it. Don't be a coward. You made the jokes, you said the things you were trying to be edgy, own it respectfully."

Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright heard enough.

"I don't think you want to address the real issue here, and the real issue is convenient speech," Seawright said. "Republicans want to celebrate and uplift convenient speech. What this says to me is this is another page in the catalog to silence and suffocate the voices of people who do not agree with the president and this administration. We've seen this at the ballot box with some of the tactics."

"They uplift free speech when it's convenient for them or when it fits the mold or the mold they want it to, but yet when someone criticized the president or we see resistance to the idea of what conservatives who are in charge believe, then all of a sudden it becomes a problem," he added, "and I think state-run media is what Republicans in this moment are aiming for."

Schilling took another whack at the topic by asking about President Joe Biden's Department of Justice investigating parents who spoke up at school board meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic, although those cases more accurately involved threats against officials, and Seawright underlined the crucial difference.

"Name a time when anyone from the Biden-Harris administration threaten the license of a TV network," Seawright said.

"Because the TV networks are all on them, and there were calls to go after Fox, period," Schilling interjected. "There were calls to go after Fox."

Cornish jumped in to disagree.

"I don't think TV networks treated Biden with loving care," she said. "I mean, they could have easily complained about coverage in the same way."

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The Trump administration has been aligned in the narrative it's promoted surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) shooting last Saturday, particularly with how it has painted the suspected gunman, Cole Allen, but on Tuesday, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein dismantled that narrative as nothing more than a concerted effort to justify its ever-expanding surveillance state, he argued.

“Extremist. Radicalized. Leftist. Anti-Christian. Democrat. To read the coverage of Cole Allen, the alleged [WHCD] gunman, you'd think he was a poster boy for the administration's belief that the country is under siege from a left-wing insurgency,” Klippenstein wrote in a report published on his Substack. “The evidence, as you'll see, says otherwise – but everyone from the White House to major media outlets are sticking to the script regardless.”

President Donald Trump has painted Allen as a “radicalized” anti-Christian, and his administration is actively investigating their potential ties to left-wing groups. Additionally, RNC Chair Joe Gruters cast blame for the incident on the “radicalized left,” and “even hyper-liberal MS NOW,” Klippenstein wrote, described Allen as being “on the far left fringes.”

In reality, the suspected shooter’s grievances were “actually squarely in the majority of American opinion,” Klippenstein wrote, who noted that Allen’s supposed social media posts suggested a contempt for both Republicans and Democrats, a contempt that was shared by other recent shooting suspects, like Luigi Mangione, who have been labeled as far-left extremists.

Throughout 2025, a social media account believed to belong to Allen published posts fiercely criticizing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for their "uselessness," Klippenstein noted, as well as the entirety of Democratic leadership.

“Luigi Mangione, Tyler Robinson and now Cole Allen were neither far-left nor on any partisan fringe. Instead, they were united in a sense of frustration with failed institutions defined by inaction – and a determination to embody the opposite through shocking spectacles of action,” Klippenstein wrote.

“What nobody in power wants to admit is that the belief that institutions have failed is as mainstream as Taylor Swift, not the fringe radicalism of '70s outfits like the Weather Underground that pundits keep invoking.”

Donald Trump’s effusive praise for the Secret Service after a would-be assassin stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last weekend is creating stress at the Department of Justice, where officials are leery of contradicting him.

Reacting to new reporting that the FBI has been unable to turn up the bullet fragment that struck a Secret Service agent, leading to questions over whether he was the victim of “friendly fire,” MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire said fear of the president is complicating the case against of Cole Tomas Allen.

On Wednesday’s “Morning Joe," Lemire was asked how the Trump administration is dealing with the aftermath of attempted assassination.

“So a couple of things here,” he began. “So what I have heard, people I've talked the last couple of days, it is an open question. They don't know yet if it was friendly fire or not. But in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, there was, investigators wrote and even put in a report that the suspect did get at least a couple shots off, and they believed it had hit the agent. Since then, that has called into question.”

“I think it leaves two outstanding questions,” he reported. “One is simply is this –– another moment, the Secret Service’s conduct since Butler has come under question a number of times. I think obviously they performed bravely here, but still there will be things that will be looked at.”

“I think that's number one,” he added. “And secondly, more than anything, it could just be another example of the administration refusing to ever contradict anything the president says. He said Saturday night that an agent was shot by the suspect. So therefore, that has to be gospel instead of just saying, ‘Well, the investigation actually led us another way.’ And again, we don't know that it will. But even as a hypothetical, they can't acknowledge that things could have changed, that Trump could have been wrong.”

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