Democrats condemn Kimmel being pulled off air

I have no problem with it. I think some of these people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are getting what the market wants, and he's getting what he deserves. So arguably, Hugo, this is a decision that flies in the face of free speech. So how can Republicans, who want to be the face of free speech, also be celebrating this move? Yeah, look, I thought that comment just there was kind of interesting, saying that the market dictated this move. Well, it's not quite that straightforward. There are a lot of factors at play here, including the fact that the first decision to not air Kimmel's show was taken by Sinclair and TEGNA, two kind of regional broadcasting corporations that have their own potential deal coming in the offing, and they need an FCC waiver for that deal to close. And so when he says the market, yeah, OK. Well, it's not so much the market of the consumer. It's really the market of corporate executives trying to get their acquisition deal through. So I think that's number one. And the second thing, conservatives going around and saying, look, this is just what happens when you have low ratings on popular content. Well, the moment you have Brendan Carr, when you have the FCC chair weigh in on this, the moment you have President Trump coming back from London today on AirForce One,he basically told the pool on the plane that if these late-night shows are criticizing him all the time, that shouldn't be allowed because their licensed-- which, by the way, is a massive escalation in where we were even 24 hours ago. But the moment you have the president saying this and you have the FCC chair saying this, it injects a degree of political interference or the veneer, at least, of. Political interference into the conversation. And I think the issue with that that kind of congressional Republicans forget sometimes is the equivalent on the other side would be someone like Joe Biden complaining about Fox News and Gutfeld saying, oh, they're always criticizing me. We should review Fox News's licensing and their ability to broadcast. And Republicans, I think, get caught up in the moment sometimes, and they forget that when this shoe is on the other foot is actually not so great.

Yes, and that is a big part of the conversation. It's the other part of this that's interesting is it's happening at the same time that the attorney general, Pam Bondi, is getting a lot of backlash from members of the Republican Party because she says she wants to crack down on hate speech. It seems like this is a tricky thing for them to weave. Absolutely, and I think a lot of these members are kind of walking a tightrope on that right now. And yesterday, there was a censure resolution that ultimately got tabled with Ilhan Omar that Nancy Mace had introduced. And I talked to one of the Republicans that ultimately opted not to support the Republican position on that that pointed out that Charlie Kirk himself had said that you should be able to speak freely and pointed to a tweet there. So I mean, given the circumstances, kind of an interesting thing to see them navigate this messaging.

It's not easy. Well, but on the Pam Bondi point, there's also the bigger factors at play here, right? When Pam Bondi went on Fox News and said hate speech is something that we will prosecute, and she brought up this thing about if someone didn't want to print out a Charlie Kirk poster, then that's the equivalent of hate speech, and we're going to prosecute that too. And she kind of walked that claim back later because that's just factually not correct on the law, and I think that was recognized by everyone, and she kind of got ahead of herself. And whether that was because she was grieving Charlie Kirk's assassination or whether she was trying to get ahead of the present and trying to show that she was being tough on the issue, if you leave that to the side for a minute, I think there is an element here that it's all becoming very, very politically charged and just factually incorrect on the law. But it seems just the very notion that she would separate hate speech into its own category was enough to upset many people in the base. Yeah, on both sides of the aisle. To your point, Democrats think it's outrageous that the attorney general will come out and say we're going to start prosecuting people for what they say and that it's hate speech, even if it doesn't rise to the level of incitement, which is what the DOJ put out later. But also conservatives, too, because they have been big champions of we need to be able to say what we want, and during the Biden years, that was obviously a big issue. It's definitely been an interesting pivot to watch, and we'll see if it sticks. Yeah, I think to your point, this issue is only going to become bigger as we continue to talk about it. I want to chat briefly about an excerpt from Kamala Harris's upcoming book because she revealed that Pete Buttigieg was actually her first choice for her running mate, but she felt it was, quote, "too big of a risk for a Black woman to run with a gay man." I just wonder your reaction to this.

I mean, it is fascinating, to a degree, how this is all coming out when it doesn't really matter anymore. Like, none of these discussions were had during the campaign. We both covered it, and these were not things that came up then. And I think maybe with hindsight, maybe Harris and her team would have done things differently. But I think also people forget that in the moment, it was a very, very charged environment. Trump was running again. Biden was dropping out, and I see both sides of this. On the one side, I see the fact in that charged moment, you don't want to take a risk. And yet on the other side, she maybe had the best opportunity to do so. I see your point that it doesn't matter because that election is behind us, but these are two people who have high ambitions and probably presidential aspirations for both of them. I wonder what a comment like this does to either of them.

I mean, I don't know how it plays with the Democrat base coming out and saying that. I mean, I think speaking to some friends that are Democrats, I feel like they feel Pete Buttigieg may have fired up voters and provided something new and something to excite voters to get out for. So I guess we'll see how that plays out politically and what her next moves are.

Yes, we will be definitely watching that. Juliegrace and Hugo, thank you so much. And please take some candy that our host, Major Garrett, would insist on. That I will do.