Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who drew sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle over his threats related to Jimmy Kimmel’s show, will testify before the Senate Commerce Committee, a spokesperson for the committee told NBC News.
The panel, which has jurisdiction over the FCC, is chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, one of the first congressional Republicans to chastise Carr’s actions. A date has not been set for the hearing.
Semafor first reported on Carr’s agreeing to testify.
An FCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night on the upcoming hearing.
Cruz bashed Carr after he floated potential regulatory action against ABC and its parent company, Disney, ahead of what became a weeklong suspension of Kimmel’s late-night show over on-air comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“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,” Cruz said last month on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” after Kimmel’s show was indefinitely suspended. The show was reinstated nearly a week later.
“I gotta 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,’” he added.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly praised Carr for his actions leading up to Kimmel’s suspension, telling reporters last month that Carr should revoke broadcasters’ licenses for unfavorable coverage.
In a letter last month, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., urged Cruz to hold an oversight hearing and “demand Chairman Carr answer for this unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.” Asked by NBC News at the time whether a hearing with Carr was forthcoming, Cruz said, “We will certainly engage in oversight of all the agencies within the committee’s jurisdiction.”
