Donald Trump calls for late night host Seth Meyers to be fired

Carr added no comment on Trump’s post, but his amplification of the president’s call for NBC to fire a late-night critic follows the FCC chairman’s warning to ABC stations in September about Jimmy Kimmel, whose comments about Charlie Kirk led the network to remove the late night house from the program for several days. Two major station groups, Nexstar and Sinclair, said they would not air the show. Nexstar is seeking FCC approval for its acquisition of Tegna.

An NBC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meyers has not yet responded.

Trump lashed out at Meyers earlier this month, calling him “the least talented person to ‘play’ live in the history of television” and a “truly deranged lunatic.”

“In general, I try to live by the New Yorker credo: When someone rambles and raves about you, ignore them. Chances are they’ll move on and rave about something else. But there’s one thing I just have to address,” Meyers said on the show. “You can say I have no talent. You can say I’m disturbed. But I am not the one who constantly talks about catapults on aircraft carriers!

Carr’s warning about Kimmel, followed by his removal from the air, sparked a backlash, with Disney+ subscribers canceling their subscriptions.

A few days later, Carr claimed he was not threatening stations with losing their licenses if Kimmel was not fired. But even some Republicans took it that way, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) likening the FCC chairman’s comments to what a mob boss would say.

On his late night show earlier this month, Kimmel, in his monologue, said, “We saw new lows this weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to gain political points through it.”

Two days later, Carr, appearing on Benny Johnson’s podcast, called Kimmel’s remark “the most unsound conduct possible.”

“Frankly, when you see things like this, I mean, we can do it the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change their ways, to act, frankly, against Kimmel, or there will be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

In the Benny Johnson interview, Carr raised the prospect of Kimmel’s firing and the possible revocation of the stations’ licenses.

He said: “Look, there are calls for Kimmel to be fired. You could certainly see a path forward for a suspension on this. Again, the FCC is going to have solutions that we can look at. We may ultimately be called upon to be a judge on this issue.”

Cruz said he plans to introduce the Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Outreach to Network Expression (JAWBONE) Act. In response to what he sees as efforts by the Biden administration to pressure tech companies, the legislation “would provide a robust right of recourse when Americans are targeted by their own government,” Cruz said at a hearing last month.