FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is expected to testify in front of the Senate Commerce Committee, according to a report in Semafor.
Although no agenda has been made public, his testimony is expected to revolve around Carr's recent actions surrounding the suspension of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on ABC.
The committee, which oversees the FCC, is led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who, in a rare rebuke to the Trump administration, criticized Carr’s handling of the suspension of the late night talk show host two weeks ago. Kimmel had made what many Republicans considered offensive comments about the assassination of right wing commentator Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10.
After Kimmel’s remarks, Carr commented about the controversy on a podcast; comments that many saw as a veiled threat against ABC, the network that broadcasts Kimmel.
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way,” Carr said on the Benny Johnson podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr denied that these comments were an implied threat, telling reporters on Tuesday that they were misconstrued.
“There was no threat made or suggested that if Jimmy Kimmel didn’t get fired, that someone was going to lose their license,” Carr said. “I’ve seen that there’s a lot of Democrats that are writing letters saying that is what happened, and it simply didn’t.”
After ABC announced that it was suspending Kimmel, criticism came not only from Democrats, but Republicans as well, and in particular, Cruz, who said Carr’s comments were “dangerous as hell.”
According to the report in Semafor, the date for Carr’s appearance along with the two other FCC commissioners, Republican Olivia Trusty and Democrat Anna Gomez, could be in November but has not been confirmed.
