‘Dangerous as hell’: Ted Cruz slams FCC chair Brendan Carr's mafioso-style Jimmy Kimmel crackdown threat

WASHINGTON, DC: Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke out sharply against Donald Trump-appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr on his podcast Thursday.

Cruz said Carr’s warning to ABC and Jimmy Kimmel over recent on-air comments by the late-show host crossed a line that could set a risky precedent.

Ted Cruz says Brendan Carr’s rhetoric is ‘dangerous as hell’

On Wednesday, Brendan Carr suggested that ABC and Jimmy Kimmel could face consequences for Kimmel’s Monday night rant.

During his segment, Kimmel had falsely suggested that Tyler Robinson, who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week, was a “one of” the “MAGA gang.”

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” said Carr on Benny Johnson's podcast.

Responding to those remarks, Cruz said on podcast 'Verdict with Ted Cruz', “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.”

Ted Cruz likens FCC chairman’s threat to ‘Goodfellas’ scene

Cruz went further, comparing Carr’s warning to mafia intimidation.

“And so he threatens explicitly: we’re going to cancel ABC’s license. We’re going to take them 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.’ And I got to say, that’s right out of 'Goodfellas'," Cruz said.

"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,’” he added.

Cruz admitted he had long been a target of the late-night host. “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,” he said.

Ted Cruz warns conservatives could pay the price if FCC sets precedent

Despite welcoming Kimmel’s firing, Cruz warned against allowing federal regulators to police political speech.

“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,” said Cruz.

“They will silence us,” he added. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly.”

The remarks stand out because Cruz, a Trump loyalist, chairs the Senate Commerce Committee with oversight authority over the FCC. His criticism puts him alongside other Republicans voicing concern about how the agency wields its authority.

During his Monday monologue, Kimmel accused Republicans of mischaracterizing the background of Kirk’s killer and likened Trump’s reaction to the killing to that of a child mourning a goldfish.

ABC announced Wednesday that Kimmel would be taken off the air after Carr’s reprimand. While Kimmel is the most prominent figure to lose his platform over his remarks, several academics and a Washington Post columnist have also been dismissed in the wake of the controversy.