Fact check: Vance, rewriting last week’s history, claims FCC chair just made a ‘joke’ about Kimmel

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — Vice President JD Vance tried Wednesday to rewrite the history of what happened before ABC suspended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel last week, saying a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission merely made “a joke on social media” on the subject of Kimmel.

In reality, the chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, put entirely serious pressure on ABC in an interview released hours before the suspension was announced. Carr threatened ABC and its local affiliates with potential consequences from the federal broadcasting regulator, including the potential loss of affiliates’ broadcast licenses, if ABC or its parent company Disney did not take action against Kimmel over controversial comments he made about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Vance’s spokespeople did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment about his claim.

What Vance claimed

Vance was asked by CNN’s Kit Maher on Wednesday how he squares his belief in free speech with the FCC’s pressure related to Kimmel.

Vance began his response by correctly noting that Kimmel’s ABC show returned Tuesday after ABC ended the suspension (though the show has been kept off air in some markets by companies that own dozens of local stations). Vance claimed, dubiously, that “to the extent that he’s not back on the air, it’s because he’s not funny and has terrible ratings.”

Then Vance said, “This is not a federal government problem.” And he continued: “What people will say is well, you know, didn’t the FCC commissioner put a tweet out that said something bad? Well Kit, compare that, the FCC commissioner making a joke on social media – what is the government action that the Trump administration has engaged in to kick Jimmy Kimmel or anybody else off the air? Zero. What government pressure have we brought to bear to tell people that they’re not allowed to speak their mind? Zero.”

The FCC is set up as an independent federal agency rather than a direct arm of a presidential administration, and Carr did make some jokes on the matter of the Kimmel situation; he posted silly animated images on the social media platform X while discussing the situation with other users. But Vance entirely omitted the fact that Carr, who was appointed to lead the FCC by President Donald Trump, also pressured Disney, ABC and its affiliates in separate and solemn remarks.

What Carr said

Carr made the key comments in an interview with prominent conservative podcast host Benny Johnson. Johnson himself accurately described Carr’s comments as serious and threatening, framing them as follows in a social media post on September 17: “BREAKING: The FCC Chairman is threatening immediate action against Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and Disney for deliberately misleading the public by claiming Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA Conservative.”

Kimmel, who frequently mocks Trump, had said in a September 15 monologue that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” Many conservatives noted that the governor of Utah had already said by that time that the Utah man accused of killing Kirk had leftist beliefs; while the investigation continues, prosecutors alleged the day after Kimmel’s monologue that Robinson’s mother had said the suspect had “become more political” over the last year or so “and had started to lean more to the left.”

Trump had expressed a desire for Kimmel to lose his job nearly two months before Kimmel’s comments related to Kirk. On September 17, Carr told Johnson that Kimmel’s words about the murder “appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible,” said it appeared clear there was a strong argument there had been an “intentional effort to mislead the American people,” and said: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this – I mean, 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 is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

When Johnson asked what kind of action he was seeking from the companies, and suggested an on-air apology from Kimmel, Carr described that as a “reasonable, minimal step,” and then added, “There’s calls for Kimmel to be fired. I think you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this. And again, you know, the FCC is gonna have remedies that we could look at.”

A bit later in the interview, Carr spoke of the FCC’s licensing power over the local affiliate stations that air Kimmel’s show, some owned by Disney and some owned by others. They notably include two big media companies – Nexstar and Sinclair – that have business looming with the FCC, which has the power to approve or reject corporate mergers in the broadcasting industry. Carr raised the possibility of major consequences against those local affiliates.

“There’s actions that we could take on licensed broadcasters,” Carr said. “And frankly, I think that it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on (NBC’s parent company) Comcast and Disney and say, ‘Listen, we’re going to preempt – we’re not going to run – Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out, because we, we licensed broadcaster, are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.’”

Carr concluded the interview as follows: “This is a very, very, you know, serious issue right now for Disney.”

Alarm at ABC

Carr’s suggestion of license revocations caused alarm at ABC. CNN’s Elizabeth Wagmeister reported last week that one source familiar with the situation said Carr’s comment was a “real, serious threat” for all of ABC, while another source said, “‘This isn’t just about ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live.’ It’s about all of ABC and all of the shows and all employees.’”

Later on the same day Carr’s interview with Johnson was released, Nexstar announced it would preempt Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future,” calling Kimmel’s comments “offensive and insensitive.” Minutes after that, ABC announced it would “indefinitely” yank the show off air. Then Sinclair announced it had told ABC earlier in the day that it too would indefinitely preempt the show over Kimmel’s “inappropriate and deeply insensitive” remarks. After Nexstar’s announcement, Carr thanked the company in an X post and wrote, “I hope that other broadcasters follow Nexstar’s lead.”

It may never be known precisely how much Carr’s words influenced any of these companies’ actions, including the decisions by Nexstar and Sinclar to keep Kimmel’s show off their stations even after his return this week; both Nexstar and Sinclair have said Carr’s words haven’t had any role in their moves.

But Vance suggested that Carr’s pressure simply didn’t exist, and that’s not true.

Trump himself attempted to pressure ABC over Kimmel the night before Vance spoke. In a social media post, Trump criticized ABC for bringing Kimmel’s show back and wrote, “He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution.” (There is no basis for claiming a television host’s political commentary is an illegal donation.) The president continued with an apparent legal threat: “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter contributed to this article.

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