Late night host Jimmy Kimmel is returning to his ABC show tonight, despite threats from Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr last week to revoke broadcast licenses of ABC stations that aired his program.
Now, former prosecutor Ankush Khardori is arguing that Carr significantly overplayed his hand after Kimmel was reinstated. And he added that he may have a massive hole to dig himself out of to restore his own credibility.
During a Tuesday segment on MSNBC's "The Weeknight," co-host Michael Steele asked Khardori whether a future Democratic-controlled Congress may take action to rein in the FCC after Carr's threats. But the ex-DOJ official said that whether Congress puts "the guardrails back on" may be the wrong question.
"On the question of corruption, it's avery interesting one, how tothink about this ... the corporationswould not be acting the waythey are acting if they did notbelieve that this government ismaking decisions not based onthe law or the regulations orthe merits, but based on political outrage orpartisanship," he said.
"That'sthe reason they have to bemaking concessions on totallyunrelated things, like there'sa corporate logic to it, butthat corporate logic assumesthat the government is itselfcorrupt on these issues ... and that there's nothingthey can do about," he continued. "That's why they self-censor. That'swhy they acquiesce and bend theknee, because they don't thinkthat the law and the truth ison their side."
Khardori further observed that because Disney nonetheless made the decision to buck the administration and put Kimmel's show back on the air in spite of the FCC chairman's threats, Carr may be pondering his future — or could end up doubling down.
"I think Brendan Carr knows he made afool out of himself in front ofevery lawyer in America. Idon't think he expected thatclip on Benny Johnson to travelthe way it did, but we all sawit and we all saw him do it," he said. "... I don't know who Brendan Carr thinks he is. But what what came out of thatwas universal condemnation fromevery competent lawyer,including Ted Cruz ... He knows that it has gone way further than he expected it to."
Watch the segment below: