FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s threat to ABC that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” regarding Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was actually a joke, JD Vance insisted.
Carr has tried to distance himself as a factor in parent company Disney temporarily pulling Kimmel’s show off the air, claiming it was somehow the Democrats’ fault. Vance similarly attempted to reframe the issue on Wednesday by claiming Carr—a Project 2025 architect—didn’t mean what he said, despite him giving no such indication at the time.
“What people will say is, ‘Didn’t the FCC commissioner put a tweet out that said something bad?’” Vance said Wednesday after a reporter questioned the administration’s shifting approach to free speech issues.
“Well, compare that—the FCC commissioner making a joke on social media. What is the government action that the Trump administration has engaged in to kick Jimmy Kimmel or anybody else off the air? Zero,“ he insisted.
”What government pressure have we brought to bear to tell people that they’re not allowed to speak their mind? Zero. We believe in free speech in the Trump administration. We are fighting every single day to protect it."
Vance’s idea of a “joke” certainly didn’t come off as one. Carr had suggested to right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson just hours before Disney suspended Kimmel’s show last Wednesday that the company could take away ABC’s broadcasting license if it didn’t operate in “the public’s interest.”
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” he said amid right-wing outrage over Kimmel’s comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk. “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.”
Carr added: “They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
In his return to the air on Tuesday night, Kimmel criticized Carr and Donald Trump—who has wanted him off the air for years—for claiming to be champions of free speech.
Pressuring Disney was not only “a direct violation of the First Amendment,” but it was “not a particularly intelligent threat to make in public,” Kimmel said.
The late-night host also suggested Carr was a hypocrite by calling attention to his 2022 tweet praising the use of political satire because “it challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people in to the discussion.”
Vance’s office didn’t immediately respond to a Daily Beast inquiry asking if he felt that Carr was joking then, too.
