Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr speaks during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2025 Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 9, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
House Democrats issued an explosive statement attacking Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, accusing him of a “corrupt abuse of power,” and calling for his resignation. Carr is being perceived by some as having pressured ABC to indefinitely suspend late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over his comments about Charlie Kirk and President Donald Trump.
“Mr. Carr, in an interview on a right-wing podcast on Wednesday, said that Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were part of a ‘concerted effort to lie to the American people,’ and that the F.C.C. was ‘going to have remedies that we can look at,'” The New York Times reported.
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this — I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told podcaster Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead.”
House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team blasted the controversial FCC Chair.
Carr has “engaged in the corrupt abuse of power,” Leader Jeffries alleged in a statement. “He has disgraced the office he holds by bullying ABC, the employer of Jimmy Kimmel, and forcing the company to bend the knee to the Trump administration. FCC Chair Brendan Carr should resign immediately.”
“Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s war on the First Amendment is blatantly inconsistent with American values,” Jeffries added. “The censoring of artists and cancellation of shows is an act of cowardice. It may also be part of a corrupt pay-to-play scheme.”
On Thursday, Carr said he fully supports the right of Sinclair Broadcast Group to ask Kimmel to make a personal donation to Kirk’s family and his foundation.
“I think Sinclair has every right to call for that,” Carr told CNBC on Thursday morning.
“If Sinclair affiliates with Disney, they take Disney contract, they have a contractual relationship with Disney, and that’s between the two of them to figure out, you know, what’s going to make sense to make both of them comfortable with the relationship going forward,” Carr said.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC.
“But again,” he continued, “over the years, it would be unthinkable for Sinclair, for Nexstar, for local TV stations to actually say, ‘You know what? You know, we’re not gonna take this particular programming that’s coming out of New York and Hollywood and send it to Pennsylvania and Utah.'”
Carr called “the idea that local broadcasters feel like they can push back,” a “much healthier dynamic for the country right now.”
According to The Independent, “Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Nexstar Communications Group, who operate large numbers of ABC affiliates between them, announced they would pull the show from Wednesday, branding the comments ‘offensive’ and ‘inappropriate’. This led ABC to ‘indefinitely’ suspend production of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in a move that has attracted widespread backlash.”
As The Guardian reported, “Kimmel said ‘many in Maga land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk’ and mocked Vice-President JD Vance’s guest hosting of Kirk’s podcast, saying Trump was ‘fanning the flames’ by attacking people on the left.”
“Within a day, Carr condemned Kimmel’s comments as ‘truly sick‘ and suggested ABC and its parent company, Disney, could face regulatory consequences for spreading misinformation. The FCC chair also argued the network had violated obligations to operate in the ‘public interest’ under federal broadcasting rules.”