Jimmy Kimmel, Charlie Kirk and the Financial Services Committee – NBC

Yet another very busy week in Washington. A government shutdown looms at the end of the month; the fight at the Federal Reserve over cutting interest rates; and now a free speech battle surrounding another network late night host.

Mike Hydeck: Congressman Jim Himes joins me to give us his take. First, the FCC took issue with Jimmy Kimmel this week ,what he says on his show regarding the Charlie Kirk assassination in Utah. Then Wednesday night, ABC takes Kimmel off the air indefinitely. How do you view this? Is this a First Amendment case in your view?

Jim Himes: You know, it may be. It may be. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not sure I’m the guy to answer that, but it’s certainly a freedom of expression and a spirit of the First Amendment case, right? Why is that? Because our entire country and society is built on the idea that we don’t use the power of the government to silence voices. There’s a reason that that thought is incorporated into our First Amendment. Here you had Brendan Carr, the chairman of a powerful federal agency, basically force ABC and Disney, by the way, shame on ABC and Disney for being forced, to take a guy off the air simply because this individual didn’t like what he said. This is Russia stuff. This is China stuff. This is North Korea stuff. I do think that Americans need to grapple with the fact that now the government is in the business of silencing them. By the way, I might point out too that the Trump Administration promised to be the most pro free speech administration possible. They would never, ever, ever go into cancel culture. Well, they just got Jimmy Kimmel canceled.

Mike Hydeck: Yeah, and that’s the second late night host. So, after this shooting, the conservative activist Charlie Kirk gunned down at Utah University, both the members of the left and right in Washington ramped up their rhetoric, each blaming the other for a divisive climate leading to the tragedy. That’s what the speech was all about. Here in Connecticut, though our party leaders, both the adults and the younger generation, released joint statement saying it’s time to stop the violence, turn down the rhetoric. Why can’t Washington do the same?

Jim Himes: Yeah, no. And I was so proud of the way Connecticut political leadership responded. Look, there’s two responses to Charlie Kirk’s murder. If you’re a human being, you feel the tragedy of a 31-year-old with his life in front of him, with a wife who is now widowed, with children who are now fatherless and you just feel the pain of that moment. If you’re human, it doesn’t matter if you disagreed with his political viewpoints, you feel the pain of that moment. If you’re a political leader, you realize that it is an incendiary moment that, you know, hot heads are going to use this to try to stoke the fires of hate and division and maybe even violence. So if you are a leader, you say it doesn’t matter whether this was left or right. There’s way too much violence on both sides of…