Much to President Trump's dismay, Jimmy Kimmel returned to TV last night. In a wide-ranging monologue met with near-constant applause, Kimmel discussed the comments that got him suspended and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr's attempts to silence speech the president doesn't like.
"Brendan Carr is the most embarrassing car Republicans have embraced since this one, and that's saying something," Kimmel said, showing a photo of a Tesla Cybertruck painted with the American flag and the word "Trump" in big, gold letters.
Carr justified his threats to Disney by saying the FCC has to uphold the public interest standard applied to broadcasters with licenses to use the public airwaves. Carr's stance is the opposite held by previous FCC chairs from both major parties, who said the FCC should uphold the free speech rights of broadcasters.
Kimmel pointed out that broadcast TV isn't the only content distributed over networks that use radio spectrum. "Should the government be allowed to regulate which podcasts the cell phone companies and Wi-Fi providers are allowed to let you download to make sure they serve the public interest?" Kimmel said last night. "You think that sounds crazy? Ten years ago, this sounded crazy," he added, referring to Carr threatening ABC owner Disney.
Carr went on a right-wing commentator's podcast last week and said, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," and that Disney must "take action" on Kimmel "or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead." Carr urged TV station owners to refuse to air Kimmel and said that stations airing Kimmel could lose their licenses.
De Niro as FCC chair: Speech “ain’t free no more”
Carr unconvincingly claimed that he never threatened ABC station licenses and that his remarks were distorted by Democrats. But several prominent Republicans agreed that the chairman went too far. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that Carr's threat to Disney was "right outta Goodfellas."
"I don't think I've ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right," Kimmel said last night.
After quoting Carr's "easy way or the hard way" threat, Kimmel called it "a direct violation of the First Amendment" and "not a particularly intelligent threat to make in public. Ted Cruz said he sounded like a mafioso, although I don't know. If you want to hear a mob boss make a threat like that, you have to hide a microphone in a deli and park outside in a van with a tape recorder all night long. This genius said it on a podcast."
Kimmel pointed out that in 2022, Carr wrote a post saying that "political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people in to the discussion. That's why people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship."
Kimmel had Robert De Niro on for a bit in which the star of Goodfellas and other mafia movies portrayed an unnamed FCC chairman. De Niro's FCC chair told Kimmel that speech "ain't free no more, we're charging by the word now." Speech praising Trump is free but speech criticizing him will cost "a couple of fingers, maybe a tooth... I'll be watching you, Kimmel. Maybe not on ABC, that's up to you."
Kimmel's show still isn't airing on the 66 ABC affiliates operated by Sinclair and Nexstar, which chose to replace Kimmel with other programming. "After almost 23 years on the air, we're suddenly not being broadcast in 20 percent of the country," Kimmel said.
Trump furious about Kimmel return
Kimmel was suspended last week after a monologue in which he said, "We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it."
Kimmel said last night that "it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man," or "to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make. But I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both."
Trump responded to Kimmel's return last night by writing on Truth Social:
I can't believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his 'talent' was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who's not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we're going to test ABC out on this. Let's see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars [sic]. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.
Trump seems to be mixing up his settlements with media companies. He was apparently referring to a $15 million settlement he obtained from ABC over false statements made on air by George Stephanopoulos. The $16 million settlement was with CBS owner Paramount. Trump also sued The New York Times last week, but the complaint was quickly dismissed by a judge for being "tedious and burdensome."
Trump “did his best to cancel me... that backfired bigly”
Trump "was somehow able to squeeze [Stephen] Colbert out of CBS, then he turned his sights on me, and now he's openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows, who don't make millions of dollars," Kimmel said. "We have to speak out against this because he's not stopping, and it's not just comedy. He's gunning for our journalists, too. He's suing them, he's bullying them... they want to pick and choose what the news is. I know that's not as interesting as muzzling a comedian, but it's so important to have a free press, and it is nuts that we aren't paying more attention to it. Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave right now."
On the plus side, Kimmel said, Trump "did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now."
Kimmel said he "was not happy" with Disney's decision to suspend his show, but is grateful to the company for its years of support and the decision to bring him back. "They welcomed me back on the air and I thank them for that because I know that, unfortunately and I think unjustly, this puts them at risk," Kimmel said. "The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can't take a joke."
Kimmel said he spoke with numerous comedians and talk show hosts from other countries. Despite his suspension, the other hosts envy the free speech rights of Americans, he said.
"This show is not important," Kimmel said. "What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. I've had the opportunity to meet and spend time with comedians and talk show hosts from countries like Russia, countries in the Middle East, who tell me they would get thrown in prison for making fun of those in power and worse than being thrown in prison. They know how lucky we are here. Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country, and that's something I'm embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen off the air and tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air. That's not legal. That's not American. That is un-American, and it is so dangerous."
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