Senator Ted Cruz says FCC acted like 'mafioso' on Jimmy Kimmel

The Texas senator affected a mobster accent to criticise how ABC was pressed to take action on the late-night host.

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He said Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr's threat to ABC over their comedian's monologue about slain conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was "dangerous as hell".

"That's right out of Goodfellas," the Texas Republican said, as he affected a mobster's accent.

Other Republicans in Congress have been more muted in their criticism of how the FCC pressed Disney-owned ABC to take action on Kimmel, who was indefinitely suspended on Wednesday.

The row started after Kimmel said in his monologue on Monday that the "Maga gang" were "desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them" and trying to "score political points from it".