Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on his podcast “Verdict” criticized Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr for delivering a mafia-like threat before ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. “I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said,” Cruz said. “I am thrilled that he was fired. But let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying, we don’t like what you, the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves. If you don’t say what we like, that will end up bad for conservatives.”

SEN. TED CRUZ: No, no, no, no, no. Look, look, I like Brendan Carr. He’s a good guy. He’s the chairman of the FCC. I work closely with him. But what he said there is dangerous as hell. BEN FERGUSON, CO-HOST: For people that are listening, because this is going to be quote controversial, so I want to make sure we explain it clearly. When you say no, and it’s dangerous, explain and run this out, the slippery slope that this can open so that people understand why we’re saying it. CRUZ: So the Federal Communication Commission is in charge of granting broadcast licenses. So ABC, NBC, CBS, they have licenses from the FCC. It is true that under statute, they’re required to be in the public interest. What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel was lying. That’s true. He was lying. And his lying to the American people is not in the public interest. And so he threatens explicitly, we’re going to cancel ABC’s license. We’re going to take him off the air. So ABC cannot broadcast anymore. And I got to say, he threatens it. He says, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. Yeah. And I 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. And I got to say, look, I understand. Jimmy Kimmel has mocked me so many times I cannot count. The corporate media, they are dishonest. They are liars. I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired. But let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying, we don’t like what you, the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves. If you don’t say what we like, that will end up bad for conservatives. It reminds me of, you and I are both fans of the Lord of the Rings. Yeah. J.R.R. Tolkien. It reminds me of like the Ring of Power. And it is so attractive. It’s sort of like conservatives saying, wait, wait, if we have government, we have power. We can ban the media. Let me tell you what will happen. Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again. Wins the White House. They will get rid of every Democrat FCC. FERGUSON: That’s a conservative. They’ll get rid of every podcast. They’ll get rid of everybody. CRUZ: They will silence us. They will use this power and they will use it ruthlessly. I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t. And we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying. And it might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel. Yeah. But when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it. And so again, I like Brendan Carr, but we should not be in this business.

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