FCC Head Brendan Carr to Speak at Senate Hearing Following Kimmel Incident

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will testify before the Senate Commerce Committee after Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) backed television host Jimmy Kimmel over Carr and the Trump administration.

Semafor reported that Carr has agreed to testify before the Commerce Committee; Cruz has criticized Carr’s pressure against Disney and ABC over Kimmel’s statement about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin being “MAGA.”

Carr and the other two FCC commissioners will appear before the committee in November, although the date has yet to be formalized.

WATCH — Cringe:

The Texas senator accused Carr of “dangerous as hell” mafia-like tactics after he appeared to push for the removal of Kimmel’s show.

“And I’ve got to say, that’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it,’” Cruz said on his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.

As Cruz and Democrats have attacked the FCC Chairman, President Donald Trump backed Carr.

“I think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot. So I disagree with Ted Cruz on that,” the president said in September.

WATCH — So Much for Jimmy Kimmel’s Big Numbers:

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) endorsed Cruz’s criticism of Carr, saying, “Well, my colleague, Ted Cruz, said it looked just like Goodfellas. As a First Amendment guy, myself, I think he’s probably got it right. You don’t have to like what somebody says on TV to agree that the government shouldn’t be getting involved here.”

In September, Carr accused Democrats of “projection and distortion,” noting that the Biden administration, Congress, and other leftists have demanded that the agency censor disfavored television networks and “everyday Americans.”

The FCC chairman said, “I think those claims have as much factual basis as we’re seeing right now with Jimmy Kimmel.”

Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.