Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has keenly criticized Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Kerr for his comments in relation to late-night host Jimmy Kimmel just before ABC aired his show.
Cruz said he is in trouble with Carr, who is threatening to cancel ABC’s broadcast license for Kimmel’s comments about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“He says, ‘We can do this in an easy way, or we can do this in the hard way,'” the senator aired Friday morning in the latest episode of his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”
“And I have to say it’s right off ‘Good Fellas’,” Cruz said, referring to the classic mob movie.
“It’s right before the Mafios enters the bar. “A lovely bar here, it’s a shame if something happens.”
“Look, I like Brendan Kerr. He’s a good guy. He’s the chairman of the FCC. I work closely with him, and I said he’s as dangerous as hell,” Cruz said at another point in the episode.
Cruz’s comments made him confrontation with President Donald Trump.
Trump asked Cruz about his remarks later Friday, saying, “I think Brendan Kerr is an incredible American patriot with courage.”
“Brendan Kerr doesn’t want to see radio waves being illegal and misused,” Trump said.
“So I don’t agree with Ted Cruz about that,” he added.
Cruz said on the podcast that he is not a Kimmel fan and that he is “excited that he was fired” in comments about Kirk.
“But the government says to you, “I don’t like what your media said, if we don’t say what we like, it’s going to be bad for conservatives.”
Kimmel, who was suspended but not fired, said in his opening monologue Monday night that the “Magagang” is “deeply trying to characterize this child who is “killing Charlie Kirk as something other than them and doing everything he can to score political points from there.”
On Wednesday, Kerr smacked Kimmel at length while appearing on a podcast by right-wing commentator Benny Johnson.
ABC “has a license granted by us at the FCC, which has an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Kerr said.
“But frankly, when you see something like this, I mean, we can do this in an easy or difficult way,” he said. “These companies can find ways to change their behavior, and frankly, they can find ways to take action in Kimmel. Or there will be additional work beyond the FCC.”
A few hours later, ABC and Nexstar Media Group, hosting local stations with ABC, were pre-empted with “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Indefinitely.
In August, Nexstar announced its planned $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, a merger that requires FCC approval.
The FCC did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comments regarding CRUZ’s remarks.
Fix: This article has been updated to correct the wording of this quote from Ted Cruz. Previous versions included transcription errors.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCuniversal, which owns CNBC. Bersant will become CNBC’s new parent company with the Bersant spin-off planned by Comcast.
