Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) got into it with CNN's Brianna Keilar on Thursday as he struggled to spin President Donald Trump's administration's comments about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and the circumstances around his firing.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr told the far-right Benny Show that his regulators may go after ABC. It took mere hours for the network to announce Kimmel was indefinitely suspended.
On Thursday morning, Carr told CNBC, “It was appearing to directly mislead the American public about a significant fact that probably one of the most significant political events we’ve had in a long time, for the most significant political assassination we’ve seen in a long time."
The exact quote from Kimmel was: "The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."
When Trump was asked about it in the U.K. during a press conference, he claimed that Kimmel was canceled as a result of having "no talent" and bad ratings, denying that his government had any involvement or influence in the decision, contradicting Carr.
Keilar confronted Moore with the quotes, but Moore tried to spin Kimmel's remarks.
"Well, apparently he did mislead them — the American public when he said it was a right-wing MAGA person that did the assassination of Charlie Kirk," Moore said of Kimmel's statements on his show.
"That's not what he said. Actually, congressman? Congressman?" Keilar tried to step in to fact-check Moore, but he continued to filibuster over her.
"Let's jump off of this. Let's listen to what Jimmy Kimmel said and then let's have a discussion," she said, playing the clip.
"So, it's more nuanced than what you said. I just want to be clear," she said before quoting Trump's past statements claiming the government will never use its power to silence anyone. "What did he mean by that, then?"
Moore said it was precisely as Trump said it. "He's not labeling disinformation."
The comment came less than 60 seconds after Moore said Carr was going after Kimmel for disinformation.
