Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Need For Republicans To Rebuke FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s Attempted Censorship Of Free Speech

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor urging Republicans to join Democrats in standing up for democracy and condemning FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s attempts to censor free speech, and fight with us to lower costs for Americans. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony from FCC Brendan Carr, the first time he appeared publicly before the Senate after trying to bully ABC and Disney into pulling Jimmy Kimmel off the air.

Remember back then that Carr said in a podcast, “we could do this the easy way or the hard way.” And he threatened ABC and Disney with investigations. What thuggery. He threatened to pull broadcast licenses. These are naked attempts at censorship in violation of the First Amendment's protection to free speech.

The threatening and bullying of the media into simply being a mouthpiece for Donald Trump is one of the greatest threats democracy faces, and Mr. Carr has been a willing and eager henchmen to achieve that very dangerous goal.

It was disturbing to hear Mr. Carr double down yesterday on his attempt to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air. And it was troubling that too few Republicans were willing to stand up to him.

But at least one Republican, the Chair of the Committee, the junior senator from Texas, Senator Cruz, spoke out against Mr. Carr's bully tactics.

I don't agree very much with Senator Cruz on most everything he says, and I didn’t agree with many of the things he said yesterday at committee, but Senator Cruz is absolutely correct that Mr. Carr's conduct is dangerous. On the issue of Mr. Carr and the censoring of the news media, Senator Cruz is right on the money. He’s right when he said Mr. Carr’s behavior is the kind of stuff you see in Goodfellas. And no government, no matter who's in charge, has the right to silence, intimidate, or censor protected free speech, no matter where it comes from.

There are lots of dangers to our democracy under this Trump regime. It's becoming more and more like a regime. But one of the top is the intimidating of media, is the consolidation of media to only have a voice that protects Donald Trump and defends Donald Trump. That's what dictators do. That's what Orban has done in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey, and dictators throughout history— try to censor the media, consolidate the media so they are all under the thumb of the leader, of the dictator.

This is a dramatic danger, a huge danger. One of the greatest dangers to our democracy. And Ted Cruz talked about that yesterday. Frankly, if Ted Cruz can speak out against the FCC's obvious bullying tactics, so can other Republicans, other Republicans should join him.

What Mr. Carr is doing is a huge danger, and both Democrats and Republicans should unite to call this dangerous conduct out. Senator Cruz’s comments yesterday was the first step, and more on his side of the aisle in particular should join him.

While the Republicans rubberstamped [FCC Chair Brendan] Carr’s destruction of free-speech, too many of them did that, they didn’t bother to question Carr about how families have to choose between internet and cell service for their kids and putting food on the table. The costs are going through the roof, led by the big media carriers like AT&T and Verizon.

Senator Cantwell spoke out strongly on this issue. It's a cost issue, it's a cost-of-living issue. People hate paying a lot of bills that they don't have the money for, and one of them is their bill for the internet.

Democrats have a very simple message for Carr and the Trump administration: we need high-quality and low-cost wireless service. Not the other way around.

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