Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 19, 2025


Jimmy Kimmel Fired-Was it Right & Should the FCC have Gotten Involved plus Trump Designates ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization

Topics
late night comedy Stop Funders Act
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Mentioned
Jimmy Kimmel Charlie Kirk Antifa Donald Trump Kash Patel Stephen Colbert Caitlin Collins Brendan Carr Patriot Mobile Benny Johnson Ben Ferguson Verdict View Representative Swalwell Jennifer Stewart Whoopi Goldberg Caitlin Clark J.R.R. Tolkien Border Patrol Adam Carolla and 5 more
BONUS POD： Trump declares Antifa a Terrorist Organization plus Feds Drop Rates & How it Effects You Liberals Celebrate Kirk Assassination on Social Media, 'Love' Texts from Assassin to Boyfriend & Designating Antifa as Terrorist Organization Week In Review

Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

172.23

Word count

6,115

Sentence count

539

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

22

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss the fallout from Jimmy Kimmel's suspension, the FBI declaring Antifa a terrorist organization, and the role of the FCC in protecting the First Amendment rights of Americans. Plus, Ted and Ben talk about how to keep your dog healthy and active.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.340 Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:08.000 It's nice to have you with us wherever you're listening around the country.
00:00:11.460 And we've got a packed show for you, including one of your best friends, Senator Jimmy Kimmel.
00:00:18.000 Get in the boot.
00:00:19.240 I mean, are you guys going to have a lot more time to play basketball now?
00:00:22.780 Look, Jimmy Kimmel has been canned.
00:00:25.760 He has been suspended indefinitely.
00:00:28.100 Unfortunately, I think that is a fantastic thing. 0.94
00:00:31.740 I think Jimmy Kimmel was putting out garbage for a long, long time.
00:00:35.160 But we're going to break down because there are real questions about why ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel 0.56
00:00:40.000 and what the role was of the FCC.
00:00:42.920 The FCC threatened to revoke ABC's licenses.
00:00:46.080 We're going to break down the First Amendment implications of that.
00:00:49.260 We're also going to talk about a hearing that happened this week.
00:00:52.320 Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
00:00:56.300 And I questioned Kash and I called on the Trump administration to designate Antifa as a terrorist
00:01:03.860 organization.
00:01:05.220 Yeah.
00:01:05.360 And in particular, what I urged the FBI and the DOJ to do is follow the money.
00:01:09.920 Follow those who are putting money behind violent protests, riots, acts of violence.
00:01:16.200 And and we're also going to talk about how the fact that that within 24 hours, the Trump
00:01:23.520 administration announced they were doing exactly that.
00:01:26.120 They were going to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
00:01:29.440 It's the right thing to do.
00:01:30.960 It makes America safer.
00:01:32.800 We're going to explain all that to you.
00:01:34.680 Yeah, it's definitely it's a lot to discuss.
00:01:36.720 And we're going to talk about all of it coming up in a moment.
00:01:38.940 If you've got a dog, I got to tell you, and you love your dog, your dog's getting older.
00:01:43.920 I've got a 12 and a half year old dog.
00:01:45.800 You need to know about something that is really given my dog new life.
00:01:50.060 It is called Rough Greens.
00:01:52.100 My dog was at that point where if he was on the couch, he'd kind of whine and bark and
00:01:56.180 you'd have to coach him off the couch or just pick him up and put him on the ground.
00:01:59.720 Same thing when he's jumping up on the couch.
00:02:01.520 Part of that's just getting older.
00:02:02.980 Well, we decided to try Rough Greens and he is back to being able to do it on his own.
00:02:08.940 It is truly amazing to watch this dog have new, I say new life, because he's back to
00:02:16.440 doing what he was doing before that he loved.
00:02:18.420 He's running around more in the backyard.
00:02:20.100 He is more active.
00:02:21.540 Now, how does Rough Greens work?
00:02:23.260 It's pretty awesome.
00:02:24.180 It supports long-term health by providing live bioavailable nutrients, including essential
00:02:29.540 vitamins, minerals, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and omega oils.
00:02:35.480 The ingredients work together to improve nutrition absorption.
00:02:38.940 Maintain joint and muscle health of your dog and enhance the overall vitality.
00:02:43.940 And I can tell you, I'm witnessing it now.
00:02:45.960 It works.
00:02:46.580 It promotes longevity by addressing common nutritional deficiencies found in processed dog food.
00:02:52.740 Now, Rough Greens supplements are easy, okay?
00:02:55.700 It is easy to use.
00:02:58.320 All you have to do is sprinkle it on your dog's food and your dog will love it.
00:03:04.800 You don't have to change your dog's food.
00:03:06.760 You just add Rough Greens, and I want you to be able to try a free Jumpstart bag so you
00:03:12.720 can see it for yourself with your dog.
00:03:14.980 All you got to do is cover the shipping.
00:03:16.640 Use the discount code BEN to claim your free Jumpstart trial bag at roughgreens.com.
00:03:23.240 That's R-U-F-F, greens, with an S, dot com.
00:03:28.720 Roughgreens.com, promo code BEN.
00:03:30.800 You don't change your dog food, all right?
00:03:32.880 You just add Rough Greens and watch the health benefits come alive in your favorite dog or
00:03:38.420 dogs.
00:03:39.520 Roughgreens.com, promo code BEN, and get that free trial.
00:03:44.020 All right.
00:03:44.500 Now, Senator, let's go back to how all this went down so people understand.
00:03:48.420 Again, there's a lot of misinformation.
00:03:51.420 There's just a lot of lies out there.
00:03:52.880 Let's just be honest about it.
00:03:54.500 There are a ton of lies in this one.
00:03:57.320 Jimmy Kimmel went after our dear friend who was assassinated and went after him and basically
00:04:05.760 implied that he's responsible for his own assassination.
00:04:09.960 And oh, by the way, he was a Trump supporter referring to the assassin.
00:04:14.200 That is why he got in trouble, because he lied.
00:04:17.720 It's not because of free speech, which some people have complicated this into a free speech
00:04:22.520 issue.
00:04:23.080 By the way, he can say whatever the hell he wants.
00:04:24.800 It doesn't mean you're going to keep your job.
00:04:28.760 Well, let's break this down to several things.
00:04:31.640 Number one, Jimmy Kimmel had become profoundly unfunny.
00:04:36.560 There was a time, I don't know, 15 years ago, that he was a talented comedian.
00:04:42.040 He could be funny.
00:04:42.840 You know, he started hosting The Man Show with Adam Carolla, and they were pretty funny
00:04:49.420 back then.
00:04:49.940 And that's how he got a late night gig.
00:04:52.440 I've been on Jimmy Kimmel.
00:04:54.060 I've done his show.
00:04:54.740 I've done his show a couple of times.
00:04:56.320 He can be funny.
00:04:58.160 But then Donald Trump got elected.
00:05:00.740 And when Donald Trump got elected, it broke late night comedy.
00:05:04.700 The host of late night comedy, they used to be able to make fun of both sides.
00:05:09.480 And by the way, good comedy, it ought to make fun of Republicans and Democrats.
00:05:13.320 It ought to just laugh and have fun.
00:05:16.180 But Jimmy Kimmel, just like Stephen Colbert, his brain melted when Donald Trump came into
00:05:22.900 the White House.
00:05:24.260 Yeah.
00:05:24.340 And it is now unwatchable.
00:05:26.940 I've grown up.
00:05:28.000 I've grown up watching SNL.
00:05:29.580 I've grown up watching late night comedy.
00:05:31.300 I like to laugh.
00:05:33.440 And it is now, I don't watch it anymore.
00:05:36.080 In fact, and I'm not unique.
00:05:38.660 The vast majority of America doesn't watch it anymore because Jimmy Kimmel would stand
00:05:42.900 up and just basically scream, I hate Donald Trump.
00:05:46.480 And after a while, it's like, yeah, we know.
00:05:49.180 Yeah.
00:05:49.920 There's no mystery about it.
00:05:51.440 You're not hiding it.
00:05:52.500 But how about being a comedian?
00:05:55.260 How about telling a joke?
00:05:56.680 By the way, you know, when I was first elected to the Senate 13 years ago, it was a regular
00:06:02.340 part of the job to go on late night comedy.
00:06:06.960 And so I've done Jay Leno.
00:06:09.060 I've done Jimmy Kimmel.
00:06:10.220 I've done Stephen Colbert.
00:06:12.360 I've done Fallon.
00:06:15.460 That was part of the job.
00:06:17.100 Today, none of them, zero, have any Republicans on.
00:06:23.780 Yeah.
00:06:23.900 They will not have them on.
00:06:25.140 They just, their entire show is essentially an infomercial screaming that they hate Donald
00:06:31.120 Trump.
00:06:31.440 On top of that, Kimmel's numbers had plummeted.
00:06:35.320 So here are some of the stats.
00:06:37.000 According to Late Nighter, in August, Jimmy Kimmel lost 11% of his audience, down to 1.104
00:06:47.320 million viewers.
00:06:48.920 To put that in perspective, Jimmy Kimmel was getting fewer viewers than we have verdict
00:06:55.440 listeners.
00:06:56.680 Yeah.
00:06:56.780 So this podcast.
00:06:58.400 Congratulations, by the way.
00:06:59.740 That's like, that's like the real deal right there. 1.00
00:07:02.320 Like, like he's, he's on ABC in every television in America and verdict was kicking his ass. 0.99
00:07:09.620 Now, now, by the way, I, I, we will continue kicking his ass and I want to keep, continue 0.99
00:07:13.460 growing those numbers, but 1.104 million viewers. 0.96
00:07:18.100 And by the way, in the 18 to 49 demographic, which is the critical demographic for selling
00:07:23.200 stuff that advertisers care about, Kimmel was down 15%.
00:07:28.820 Do you know how many viewers, 18 to 49, he had?
00:07:32.020 I'm going to guess under 400,000?
00:07:36.540 129,000.
00:07:37.700 Wow.
00:07:38.960 So.
00:07:39.820 With a 16, a report, I think it was $16 million a year salary, by the way, for him.
00:07:44.300 Yeah.
00:07:44.500 He was getting paid a crap ton of money.
00:07:46.420 And to give that in perspective, Colbert, who was fired, was losing Paramount $40 million
00:07:54.440 a year.
00:07:55.700 Yeah.
00:07:56.760 ABC has not made their numbers public.
00:07:59.000 So, so we don't know what the numbers were, but, but Kimmel had lost even more viewers
00:08:04.180 than Colbert.
00:08:05.180 So you have to assume he was losing ABC even more money than Colbert was doing.
00:08:10.880 So he was a train wreck.
00:08:13.320 He was a disaster.
00:08:14.700 He was unfunny. 1.00
00:08:16.080 And he was also bitter and nasty. 0.96
00:08:20.340 And he lied about Charlie Kirk.
00:08:22.880 All right, Senator, I want to go back to what you were saying a moment ago.
00:08:25.740 And, and one of the interesting things about Kimmel that I do want to break down is so many
00:08:31.240 on the left are screaming, this is cancel culture.
00:08:33.920 It is not cancel culture. 1.00
00:08:35.960 He said something dumb. 0.76
00:08:37.440 I also think though, that ABC news was looking for a reason to get out for what you just 0.98
00:08:44.680 described, which is you don't have anybody watching the revenues down.
00:08:49.260 The guy's making a $16 million a year.
00:08:52.040 And so this was a perfect opportunity to say, Hey, we can get out of this with reason here.
00:08:58.040 Page six is even saying they even asked him if you gave some money and made a donation
00:09:03.120 and apologize.
00:09:03.960 And apparently he was saying, I won't do it.
00:09:06.240 That's what they're reporting tonight as well, uh, is that they're saying, Hey, like, you
00:09:10.580 know, like he's like, no, I'm not going to apologize to Kirk family.
00:09:13.320 So it gave them even an easier ability to get rid of him and can this thing early.
00:09:17.960 Look, unquestionably ABC was hemorrhaging money.
00:09:20.860 This, this was a smart business decision, but also what Jimmy Kimmel said was reprehensible.
00:09:25.880 And I want you to listen to it.
00:09:27.180 I want you to, if you're watching online, I want you to watch.
00:09:29.340 This is the monologue that got Jimmy Kimmel fired.
00:09:33.420 Give a listen.
00:09:34.620 We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize
00:09:39.760 this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything
00:09:44.560 they can to score political points from it.
00:09:47.400 In between the finger pointing, there was a grieving on Friday.
00:09:50.520 Today, the White House flew the flags at half staff, which got some criticism, but on a
00:09:54.860 human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.
00:09:59.080 My condolences on the loss of your friend, Charlie Kirk.
00:10:01.720 May I ask, sir, personally, how are you holding up over the last day and a half, sir?
00:10:05.920 I think very good.
00:10:06.880 And by the way, right there, you see all the trucks?
00:10:09.480 They've just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something
00:10:14.280 they've been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years.
00:10:17.280 And it's going to be a beauty.
00:10:19.700 Yes.
00:10:20.920 He's at the fourth stage of grief, construction, demolition, construction.
00:10:29.940 This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend.
00:10:33.320 This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?
00:10:36.320 By the way, so people understand context there.
00:10:39.500 The reporting out of the White House and people I've talked to have said that the president
00:10:42.600 was gutted over the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
00:10:45.820 It was pretty clear he did not want to talk about it right then.
00:10:49.700 And as he was outside, it's not like reporters are his therapists.
00:10:53.960 Right.
00:10:54.160 Yeah.
00:10:54.380 I mean, it was obvious he didn't want to go there at that moment.
00:10:58.400 And so he and let me say, Ben, the thing to understand about Jimmy Kimmel, what he just
00:11:02.960 said there, there's a technical term for that.
00:11:05.820 It's called a lie.
00:11:07.720 Yeah.
00:11:07.840 So he stood up and said, the murderer of Charlie Kirk was a MAGA Republican.
00:11:15.080 Yep.
00:11:15.400 That is flat out false.
00:11:17.580 That is a brazen lie.
00:11:20.300 And we talked about this our last podcast.
00:11:22.640 If you didn't listen to our last podcast, you should go back and listen to it.
00:11:26.060 I went on CNN with Caitlin Collins and she fought me like crazy. 1.00
00:11:29.700 We don't know what the motive of this guy is.
00:11:31.740 This murderer, this assassin was a left-wing radical.
00:11:37.400 He was an Antifa activist. 0.98
00:11:39.880 He was a transgender activist.
00:11:41.900 He was living with a transgender man transitioning to be a woman.
00:11:47.160 That transgender man was his boyfriend. 0.58
00:11:50.420 He wrote on the bullets Antifa and transgender slogans. 0.97
00:11:54.860 He hated Charlie Kirk.
00:11:56.520 He admitted all of this.
00:11:57.720 It is unequivocal.
00:11:59.240 This is a hardcore leftist.
00:12:00.480 And I got to say, it is amazing.
00:12:02.600 The vast majority of Democrats today believe Charlie Kirk's murderer was a MAGA Republican
00:12:09.580 because the media is corrupt and they are lying.
00:12:13.700 When I was on CNN with Caitlin Collins, she refused to acknowledge that because CNN is lying
00:12:20.220 to their viewers.
00:12:21.700 MSNBC is lying to their viewers.
00:12:23.500 And Jimmy Kimmel stood up with his measly 1.1 million viewers and lied to them.
00:12:29.980 They said this murderer was a MAGA Republican.
00:12:33.400 Now, ABC, theoretically, ABC News is a news organization.
00:12:37.420 They should not be in the business of lying to Americans.
00:12:41.020 And Jimmy Kimmel shamelessly lied to them because he has a political agenda. 0.91
00:12:46.580 Truth be damned. 0.93
00:12:48.640 And I think it's top to bottom. 0.85
00:12:50.600 So people understand this.
00:12:51.640 And I'll give you an example.
00:12:53.000 The View on ABC is actually, I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly, under the news division.
00:12:57.940 Kimmel is under, in general, I think, entertainment, but under their news.
00:13:01.940 If you want to know how much ABC...
00:13:03.640 Is he entertaining?
00:13:04.900 Yeah, right.
00:13:05.320 Exactly.
00:13:06.120 But if you want to know how much propaganda machine ABC News is, this is just an example.
00:13:12.360 It's a small example, but it's a powerful one.
00:13:14.560 In 2025, The View has had 102 liberal guests on and not one single Republican guest.
00:13:21.260 But by the way, to be clear, Ben, I've been on The View multiple times.
00:13:25.200 So I've written to date four books.
00:13:27.360 For my second book, they had me on.
00:13:29.620 For my third book, they had me on.
00:13:31.940 Now, particularly for the third book, we got into it.
00:13:34.380 It was a hell of a scrape.
00:13:36.540 Whoopi Goldberg and the other cackling hosts of The View insisted...
00:13:44.080 That was the nicest way it's ever been put, by the way.
00:13:46.220 That was very PC.
00:13:47.280 Well done.
00:13:47.740 I refrained myself.
00:13:49.740 Look, I got to say, I'm on good behavior, because I went through like nine different
00:13:55.380 nouns, and I just went with hosts.
00:13:58.440 I like it.
00:13:59.320 Well done.
00:13:59.840 But Whoopi insisted, she said, violence is only a right-wing phenomenon.
00:14:05.060 And I said, well, what about the Antifa and the Black Lives Matter riots all over the 0.93
00:14:08.520 country that burn cities across America?
00:14:11.020 And she looked at me befuddled and said, I don't know what an Antifa or Black Lives Matter
00:14:16.080 riot is.
00:14:16.980 You think about the millions of housewives that watch that show that are lied to every 1.00
00:14:22.700 single day.
00:14:23.460 It went so badly for them that my fourth book, Unwoke, How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in
00:14:29.980 America, available on Amazon, by the way, when it came out, I reached out and said, hey,
00:14:36.500 I'd like to go on The View again.
00:14:37.760 And they said, no, thank you. 0.99
00:14:39.260 Like, you kicked our ass. 0.99
00:14:40.940 No, they didn't want to anymore. 1.00
00:14:42.460 We cannot have...
00:14:44.420 We are in the business of lying to our viewers.
00:14:47.480 Yeah.
00:14:47.740 And when you come on, you make it really hard to lie to our viewers because you actually
00:14:51.260 bring up facts and substance.
00:14:53.620 And we're just not good enough to lie in the face of facts and substance.
00:14:58.020 So that's who they are.
00:14:59.500 That's who they are.
00:15:00.200 It's funny.
00:15:00.940 You mentioned Caitlin Collins in your interview.
00:15:02.740 Just if you missed it, it's up on social media.
00:15:06.120 I actually think that you should do more of these because the number of viral clips that
00:15:12.840 came out of you going on with Caitlin Collins and people seeing your grand debate with her,
00:15:18.640 which is an important one, and calling her out for saying we don't know the motive and
00:15:22.320 the death, the assassination of Charlie Kirk is one that now has just exploded.
00:15:27.800 And afterwards, I'm like, you know what?
00:15:30.680 It may be worth it for you to do this like every week because then you get to call them
00:15:35.180 out every week and they are held accountable because otherwise they just go on TV and they
00:15:40.480 just lie.
00:15:42.140 Well, understand.
00:15:43.380 Jimmy Kimmel was fired because number one, he's not funny.
00:15:46.220 Number two, he was losing ABC massive amounts of money.
00:15:49.520 And number three, he flat out lied on an incredibly important issue, which is who the murderer of
00:15:54.860 Charlie Kirk was.
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00:18:10.520 All right.
00:18:10.920 So let's get to this issue, Senator, about the FCC.
00:18:14.080 They've gotten involved in this.
00:18:16.300 This is, I want to be clear, I believe it's controversial.
00:18:20.660 It concerns me.
00:18:23.120 And you and I actually really haven't talked about this much, so I genuinely want to know
00:18:26.820 what you think about this.
00:18:27.660 I don't like people tipping the scales and pushing too hard.
00:18:32.800 And let me explain why.
00:18:34.080 Because if we do it, they're going to do it when they get back in power.
00:18:37.860 And we know the ebbs and flows of politics.
00:18:40.360 This is something I don't like.
00:18:42.080 I don't want anyone getting censored.
00:18:44.480 I do not want it.
00:18:45.860 Because it will happen to conservatives.
00:18:47.620 Yes.
00:18:47.860 And it will happen 10 times harder than what we're talking about right now.
00:18:51.700 And that's just my hot take on it.
00:18:53.420 But I think it's an important one.
00:18:54.320 And this is literally what I do for a living.
00:18:55.860 I don't want someone shutting me down in what I do for a living or free speech.
00:18:59.760 Yeah.
00:19:00.180 You and I have not talked about this before doing the podcast.
00:19:02.600 But I'm not surprised that we're on the same page.
00:19:05.340 I want to play, because a lot of the media is very much focused on this, particularly
00:19:09.480 the left-wing media.
00:19:10.900 But Brendan Carr, who's the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he did an
00:19:15.140 interview with Benny Johnson.
00:19:17.080 Benny's a friend of ours.
00:19:18.160 He's a great guy.
00:19:19.160 But he leaned in hard on Jimmy Kimmel, and he threatened government retaliation for what
00:19:26.440 Kimmel said.
00:19:27.260 So I want you to give a listen to this interview, and then we're going to talk about it.
00:19:32.440 I think this is an isolated incident.
00:19:34.480 I mean, you go back to Representative Swalwell.
00:19:36.920 He had a tweet out last week where he was saying that, you know, emphasizing that Charlie
00:19:41.100 Kirk's killer was a straight white male from a Republican family that voted for Donald Trump.
00:19:45.940 In some quarters, there's a very concerted effort to try to lie to the American people about the
00:19:53.400 nature, as you indicated, of one of the most significant, newsworthy public interest acts that
00:20:00.780 we've seen in a long time.
00:20:03.160 And what appears to be an action, appears to be an action, by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that
00:20:11.180 narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person.
00:20:17.800 If that's what happened here with his conduct, that is really, really sick.
00:20:21.520 I've been very clear.
00:20:22.740 From the moment that I have become chairman of the FCC, I want to reinvigorate the public
00:20:28.880 interest.
00:20:29.260 And what people don't understand is that the broadcasters, and you've gotten this right,
00:20:32.460 are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication.
00:20:36.720 They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate
00:20:43.140 in the public interest.
00:20:44.620 And we can get into some ways that we've been trying to reinvigorate the public interest
00:20:47.520 and some changes that we've seen.
00:20:49.780 But frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or
00:20:53.780 the hard way.
00:20:54.820 These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you
00:21:02.380 know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.
00:21:04.960 But what kind of action would you see?
00:21:07.640 I, at the very least, would like to have an on-air apology from Jimmy Kimmel to the Kirk
00:21:14.540 family, to all of those who he slandered because he did say that Charlie Kirk, he is effectively
00:21:20.820 saying that our movement did this, our movement killed Charlie, that Charlie was deserving of
00:21:26.360 this effectively.
00:21:27.960 And we've seen that rear its head.
00:21:30.400 This happens quite regularly, actually, on MSNBC and on other networks where they're
00:21:36.620 trying to victim blame.
00:21:38.520 And what that does, Mr. Chairman, respectfully, is continues the lie and continues the threat
00:21:46.420 level to say effectively that we have no share in this problem at all on the left.
00:21:53.780 This is a clear-cut case.
00:21:56.920 What would you like to see done at ABC?
00:21:59.140 Well, look, I think what you said there strikes me as a very reasonable, minimal step that can
00:22:04.680 be taken.
00:22:05.320 I mean, obviously, look, there's calls for Kimmel be fired.
00:22:08.900 I think, you know, you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.
00:22:14.800 And again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at.
00:22:18.200 And again, you know, we may ultimately be called to be a judge on that.
00:22:22.780 No, no, no, no, no.
00:22:27.360 Look, look, I like Brandon Carr.
00:22:29.100 He's a good guy.
00:22:29.920 He's the chairman of the FCC.
00:22:31.120 I work closely with him.
00:22:32.640 But what he said there is dangerous as hell.
00:22:38.040 Hold on, for people that are listening, because this is going to be, quote, controversial, so
00:22:41.600 I want to make sure we explain it clearly.
00:22:43.420 When you say no and it's dangerous, explain and run this out, the slippery slope that
00:22:49.940 this can open, so that people understand why we're saying it.
00:22:53.640 So the Federal Communication Commission is in charge of granting broadcast licenses.
00:22:59.680 So ABC, NBC, CBS, they have licenses from the FCC.
00:23:03.600 It is true that under statute, they're required to be in the public interest.
00:23:08.260 What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel was lying.
00:23:12.220 That's true.
00:23:12.700 He was lying.
00:23:13.920 And his lying to the American people is not in the public interest.
00:23:17.120 And so he threatens explicitly, we're going to cancel ABC's license.
00:23:22.080 We're going to take him off the air so ABC cannot broadcast anymore.
00:23:25.660 And I got to say, he threatens it.
00:23:28.920 He says, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.
00:23:34.740 Yeah.
00:23:34.980 And I got to say, that's right out of Goodfellas.
00:23:37.200 That's right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, nice bar you have here.
00:23:43.260 It'd be a shame if something happened to it.
00:23:45.420 And I got to say, look, I understand.
00:23:49.740 Jimmy Kimmel has mocked me so many times, I cannot count.
00:23:53.580 The corporate media, they are dishonest. 1.00
00:23:55.980 They are liars. 0.99
00:23:56.800 I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. 0.98
00:23:59.140 I am thrilled that he was fired.
00:24:02.580 But let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying, we don't like what you, the media, have said.
00:24:11.960 We're going to ban you from the airwaves if you don't say what we like.
00:24:17.440 That will end up bad for conservatives.
00:24:20.380 It reminds me of, you and I are both fans of the Lord of the Rings.
00:24:23.500 Yeah.
00:24:23.800 J.R.R. Tolkien.
00:24:24.920 It reminds me of, like, the ring of power.
00:24:27.700 And it is so attractive.
00:24:29.760 It's sort of like conservatives are saying, wait, wait.
00:24:31.980 If we have government, we have power.
00:24:34.540 We can ban the media.
00:24:36.400 Let me tell you what will happen.
00:24:37.520 Again, going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again, wins the White House.
00:24:45.880 They will get rid of every talk show host in America that's a conservative.
00:24:48.980 They'll get rid of every podcast.
00:24:50.340 They'll get rid of everybody on YouTube.
00:24:51.400 They will silence us.
00:24:52.560 They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly.
00:24:57.300 And that is dangerous.
00:24:58.460 And by the way, in the Biden administration, they tried to go after and revoke Fox's license
00:25:04.980 because they didn't like it, and they say everything they say on Fox is hate speech.
00:25:09.080 I'm sure they say everything you and I say is hate speech.
00:25:12.080 It's misinformation.
00:25:13.360 They've defined anything counter to the leftist narrative as misinformation.
00:25:20.100 Now, we just talked about Jimmy Kimmel was lying.
00:25:22.920 But you know what?
00:25:24.800 It's interesting.
00:25:25.760 Brendan said, well, gosh, they slandered Charlie Kirk and his family.
00:25:31.840 You know what?
00:25:32.800 If they slandered him, there's already a remedy.
00:25:35.480 There's a remedy of defamation.
00:25:37.220 ABC could be sued.
00:25:38.540 And by the way, you get a defamation lawsuit, you could pay millions of dollars.
00:25:42.640 Let that process play out.
00:25:44.600 I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying,
00:25:51.460 we're going to decide what speech we like and what we don't,
00:25:54.720 and we're going to threaten to take you off air if we don't like what you're saying.
00:25:58.460 And it might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel.
00:26:02.620 Yeah.
00:26:02.860 But when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.
00:26:08.320 And so, again, I like Brendan Carr, but we should not be in this business.
00:26:13.440 We should denounce it.
00:26:14.420 It's fine to say what Jimmy Kimmel said was deplorable.
00:26:18.620 It was disgraceful.
00:26:20.040 And he should be off air, but we shouldn't be threatening government power to force him off air.
00:26:25.740 That's a real mistake.
00:26:26.720 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
00:26:29.640 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.
00:26:33.760 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.
00:26:37.460 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:26:38.660 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:26:39.900 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:26:43.660 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
00:26:49.400 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.
00:26:52.380 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:26:56.720 Senator, I want to get to something else that happened earlier this week, and that was the questioning of the FBI director, Cash Patel.
00:27:05.340 You had the opportunity to talk with Cash on a number of different issues.
00:27:08.600 Obviously, one of them that was in front of mine was the assassination of our friend Charlie Kirk.
00:27:15.860 Well, absolutely.
00:27:17.020 So this week, Cash Patel, the director of the FBI, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
00:27:21.440 And I took the opportunity to question him on a number of topics, but front and center to urge Cash Patel to follow the money and, in particular, to go after Antifa and to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
00:27:36.780 Here's the exchange Cash and I had.
00:27:38.540 Give a listen.
00:27:38.960 I want to encourage you, in the course of this investigation, absolutely go after anyone who aided and abetted.
00:27:48.960 But I want to more broadly encourage you, follow the money.
00:27:52.860 The violence we are seeing is not purely organic.
00:28:01.060 There is, I believe, significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence.
00:28:08.660 Antifa.
00:28:09.160 Do you believe Antifa is a terrorist organization?
00:28:14.900 I believe Antifa is associated with a lot of violence in this country as to its designation.
00:28:19.460 I'll leave that to the appropriate authorities.
00:28:20.880 So I would encourage the administration to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization, to go systematically after Antifa.
00:28:27.440 They've committed acts of violence all over the country.
00:28:31.600 And the shell casings have multiple references to slogans that Antifa has popularized.
00:28:36.880 I believe there is considerable money funding it.
00:28:41.340 I would note that I've introduced legislation called the Stop Funders Act.
00:28:45.320 Stop Funders Act would add rioting to the list of predicate offenses under RICO.
00:28:51.400 I believe the money should be tracked and prosecuted under RICO.
00:28:57.140 And both the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots of a couple of years ago and the pro-open border riots in Los Angeles and other cities of this past year.
00:29:08.800 I believe there was significant money behind those riots.
00:29:13.100 I'm not the only person who noticed at the anti-Semitic protests and violent protests on college campuses that many of the tents all matched.
00:29:22.960 And so I would ask, would it aid your ability to prosecute these matters if Congress passed into law the Stop Funders Act and if rioting was added to the list of predicate offenses for RICO?
00:29:35.140 Yes.
00:29:36.140 Yes.
00:29:39.260 Talk to me about the efforts of the FBI to go after the funders of the anti-Semitic protests on college campuses, the pro-open border protests in cities, and potential LGBT violence.
00:29:55.420 Talk to me about the efforts to go after the money of those who are funding and promoting violence.
00:30:01.240 As I've always said, Senator, money doesn't lie, and we've been following the money.
00:30:04.720 And so that's what we're doing, issuing lawful process to organizations involved with criminal activity because the money's got to come from somewhere and it has to be funded somehow.
00:30:12.700 So we have extensive investigations ongoing into numerous organizations that are related to violent criminal activity.
00:30:20.220 Cutting off the money will make America much safer, and that is the core job of the FBI, and I thank you for doing your job.
00:30:26.960 Now, you look at what you just said there in the back and forth, Senator, and this turned very quickly into a new policy from the Trump administration as well.
00:30:37.060 That is the best news coming out of this.
00:30:39.880 Absolutely.
00:30:40.680 So this testimony was on Tuesday.
00:30:44.300 The very next day, President Trump announced he was doing what I was calling for, which is designating Antifa as a terrorist organization.
00:30:52.260 I'm going to read to you from Fox News.
00:30:54.520 President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced he will designate Antifa, a left-wing activist group, a major terrorist organization.
00:31:02.860 Trump described the group as, quote, a sick, dangerous, radical left disaster in a truth social announcement.
00:31:10.200 The president added that he will be strongly recommending that those funding Antifa be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.
00:31:19.580 The announcement comes just days after Trump said he would 100 percent consider the designation.
00:31:26.760 Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Monday, Trump accused Antifa participants of being, quote, professional agitators in response to the administration's recent crackdown on illegal immigration.
00:31:37.860 Quote, Antifa is terrible, the president said.
00:31:40.720 These aren't protests.
00:31:41.880 These are crimes that they're doing.
00:31:43.600 They're throwing bricks at cars of the ICE and Border Patrol.
00:31:47.240 They're professional agitators.
00:31:48.700 They should be put in jail.
00:31:50.760 What they're doing in this country is really subversive.
00:31:53.300 And I will say this goes right to the heart of a distinction that I've tried to lay out repeatedly, which is free speech is protected.
00:32:01.720 You can say things that are vile, that are hateful, that are horrible, that we hate, and the First Amendment protects it.
00:32:09.340 Conduct is not protected.
00:32:11.120 When you engage in violence, it is not protected.
00:32:13.980 What Antifa is doing, engaging in violence, engaging in harassment, engaging in threats, that is not protected.
00:32:22.220 And so what I urge Kash Patel, follow the money, go after the money.
00:32:28.160 And look, I believe there's money that is coming from foreign nations.
00:32:31.540 There's money that's coming from Qatar.
00:32:33.140 There's money that's coming from Iran.
00:32:34.740 There may be money coming from communist China.
00:32:36.920 And there's also money coming from the gazillionaire left-wing funders of the Democrat Party, people like George Soros and his entire organization that are funding these radical organizations.
00:32:49.340 And it's one thing to go and prosecute the individual criminals.
00:32:53.320 We should do that.
00:32:54.640 Sure.
00:32:55.260 But if you want to solve the problem, it's why I've introduced the legislation, the Stop Funders Act, because RICO is an incredibly powerful tool to prosecute not just an individual defendant, but a criminal organization.
00:33:08.900 And criminal organizations are usually structured with a hub and spokes.
00:33:13.200 And so following the money is how you get the people writing checks that are sitting in their Manhattan penthouses funding the anti-American, anti-Israel, communist, jihadist agitators that are destroying this country.
00:33:30.020 And so I got to say, I was really encouraged.
00:33:32.400 I've been pressing in the first Trump administration.
00:33:35.000 I pressed for years for the first Trump administration to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
00:33:43.840 There was a lot of openness to that argument, but it never succeeded.
00:33:47.140 They never did it.
00:33:48.440 This time, when I pressed on Tuesday, the next day, the president came out and said, we're going to do that.
00:33:54.040 That's exactly the right thing to do.
00:33:56.280 Yeah, it is big.
00:33:57.180 It's going to be really important.
00:33:58.500 It's going to have a huge impact going forward.
00:34:01.680 That may be the best part of all.
00:34:03.240 And, of course, you know you're doing something right when the left is losing their mind.
00:34:06.440 They're saying, oh, this is the president trying to silence political organizations.
00:34:11.720 I'm sorry.
00:34:12.520 They're not a political organization.
00:34:14.480 They act like a terrorist organization.
00:34:16.640 There's a big difference between a political organization and a terrorist organization.
00:34:21.960 And Antifa has all the markings, as you described it, of a terrorist organization going all the way back to 2016 when you first were calling for this.
00:34:29.780 If you engage in violence, it is not speech.
00:34:32.660 Violence is not speech.
00:34:34.140 And, by the way, anyone who commits violence should be prosecuted and go to jail.
00:34:38.200 And that's true whether you're left-wing or right-wing.
00:34:40.140 I might agree with what you're saying, but if you engage in violence, that is not acceptable.
00:34:45.300 Speech is different from violence.
00:34:47.360 We ought to protect speech, and we ought to prosecute violence and put the violent criminals in jail.
00:34:52.680 Amen to that.
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