David Letterman on Thursday skewered the Federal Communications Commission, its boss and President Donald Trump amid anger over the suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (Watch the videos below.)
It was threats from Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, that snowballed into ABC pulling Kimmel’s show indefinitely after the host’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer. The move has also sparked an intense conversation about censorship.
“You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works,” Letterman said at The Atlantic Festival.
The comedian said he “mercilessly” attacked multiple presidents in his 30-plus years on late night TV and heard bupkis from regulatory bodies ― suggesting that’s the way it should be for comedians roasting public figures.
“The point is, beating up on these people, rightly or wrongly, accurately or perhaps inaccurately in the name of comedy, not once were we squeezed by anyone from any governmental agency, let alone the dreaded FCC,” he said.
