MAGA influencer Benny Johnson took a victory lap on Wednesday night after ABC announced it would “indefinitely” suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. The announcement came just hours after Johnson interviewed Trump-picked Chair Brendan Carr, who threatened retaliation against ABC over Kimmel’s recent comments on the Charlie Kirk shooting.
During their interview, Carr threatened Disney, ABC’s parent company, and Kimmel directly, accusing the comedian of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people.”
Carr later added that the government may need to pursue “remedies” against Kimmel if ABC does not discipline him first, adding that he can “certainly see a path forward for suspension.”
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Johnson shared a tweet from October 2017 from Charlie Kirk that read, “Jimmy Kimmel isn’t funny.” He then captioned Kirk’s tweet with a celebration of Kimmel’s ouster that said, “We did it for you, Charlie. And we’re just getting started…”
Carr, on Thursday morning, posted to X and appeared to try to distance himself and the threat of government intervention from Kimmel’s ouster. “Broadcast TV stations have always been required by their licenses to operate in the public interest—that includes serving the needs of their local communities,” Carr wrote, adding:
And broadcasters have long retained the right to not air national programs that they believe are inconsistent with the public interest, including their local communities’ values.
“I am glad to see that many broadcasters are responding to their viewers as intended,” Carr concluded, suggesting that the market led to Kimmel’s ouster.
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