Did Trump create a massive problem for the GOP with the Kimmel purge?

A "hard right" guy called my show shocked. Ted Cruz called the FCC chair a mobster. Even Christian nationalist leader Tony Perkins is shaken.

In the 48 hours since Jimmy Kimmel was “indefinitely” suspended by ABC, the story of Charlie Kirk’s assassination has changed to one of a political purge and killing of free speech.

Kirk and the investigation are out of the news cycle, while Donald Trump’s FCC and its nazi tactics have taken center stage.

A man named Troy from Utah called my SiriusXM show yesterday saying he was “hard right” and yet he thought we’d surely all be on the same page on this one, that we can’t have government dictating speech. (Listen to the clip here). He expressed the discomfort that a lot Trump supporters have expressed.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page, as right-wing as they come, slammed Trump.

Mr. Trump has pursued retribution against political opponents in his second term. He’s used regulatory leverage against Paramount and CBS in a weak lawsuit and squeezed liberal law firms to do pro bono work, while the Justice Department is investigating prosecutors who brought cases against him.

A regulator like [FCC chair Brendan] Carr who might have ignored Mr. Trump’s musings about revenge in the first term doesn’t need direct orders in the second.

The squeeze on Disney looks to be a case of cancel culture on the right.

Mr. Kimmel’s comments Monday associating Charlie Kirk’s killer with the “MAGA gang” were false, callous and stupid. But they weren’t inciting violence, and in a free society they shouldn’t be cause for the government to push someone off the airwaves. Compared to the malevolent garbage on social media about Kirk and his killer, Mr. Kimmel’s words were only mildly offensive.

The head of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, one of the most powerful Christian nationalists in Trump’s base, is very worried, discussing with his panelists that this was “setting a precedent” for a Democratic president to do the same thing.

Even Ted Cruz came out on Friday afternoon and compared the FCC’s Carr to the Mafia operators in “Goodfellas”, speaking on his podcast, per USA Today:

"He says, 'We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way,'" Cruz said, referring to Carr. "That's right out of 'Goodfellas.” That's right out a mafioso coming into a bar going, 'Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.'"

"What he said there is dangerous as hell," Cruz said after playing audio of Carr's remarks. That’s right out of a mafioso…It might feel good right now to threaten Kimmel, but when it is used to silence conservatives in America, we will regret it.”

Whoa!

It’s sounding like the GOP knows it’s got a massive problem, as the country is now focused on Trump overreaching, and that includes even some in the base of their own party. The story has shifted from Kirk to Trump’s fascistic actions. Carr, taking orders directly from Trump—who is now saying it’s illegal for the networks to write negative things about him, and should have their licenses taken away—undermined the MAGA narrative.

Kirk wasn’t well-known beyond young people and MAGA minions. But all of America knows Jimmy Kimmel, and they are smelling the stench of fascism.