Free speech debate over Kimmel's suspension

You want to jump in? I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were against government regulation, and you're saying that the American people decided this. No, they didn't. Shareholders of ABC and Nexstar decided this. The American people had no vote in this. And look, Jimmy Kimmel, this was The ManShowguy. This is not a liberal firebrand. This is a guy who is pretty Middle America. And so again, I remember when Republicans were for free speech. No Americans decided this would happen. This was shareholders acting out of fear of the government.

How do you respond to that? Shareholders are the American people. I mean, at the end of the day, Jimmy Kimmel's ratings were in the tank, not because he was funny. It's because the American people found his humor not to be funny. And like I said, this was a convenient excuse to sort of dump an underperforming asset, which the Kimmel show had been. He used to be funny when he was The ManShow, but then he completely did a 180 because of politics, and he decided to inject partisan politics into his comedy, and that was, ultimately, what led what him losing his show is you can make fun of politicians. They do it all the time. But it's just become overwhelmingly obvious, to at least some conservatives, that the comedic tinge is anticonservative, and it's become more partisan, and we don't have to take that. And speaking of partisanship, I mean, since Charlie Kirk's assassination, there have been a lot of calls here in Washington and around the country to cool down the political rhetoric, lower the temperature, if you will. But let's take a look at what happened in the House Oversight Committee just yesterday.

It's insane. Just a bunch of criminals?

It's insane. Do I look like a member of the Third Reich to you, Ms. Tlaib? Oh please.

Is that what I look like to you? You're the one taking your voting card--

Is that what you think? --giving it to somebody--

Is that what you think? Is that what you think? No, that's unethical.

I think it's radical, and I think it's insane. And I respect everything that you say, but to say something like that to myself and a lot of my colleagues is way out of line. And I wish I could say it was just that, but then just the week before, of course, there was an argument on the House floor as House lawmakers held a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk. Let's watch that. [AUDIO LOGO]

[YELLING] Let's wait a minute. Wait a minute. The House will be in order. The House will be in order. I mean, that happened on the day that Charlie Kirk was killed. I mean, what do you make of all of this? Can we take the temperature down? I mean, if Congress can't, who can?

Yeah, I would say this. I knew Charlie. He was a colleague of mine in the campaign. The news of his loss is just devastating, and then you add the fact that the way it happened is even more devastating. My friends, my colleagues, they're hurting. They don't know what the path is forward. They know that if they speak up, there's a possibility that some triggered individual can end their life. And so they're coping with that, and sometimes you see it manifest in anger on the House floor, and I'm OK with it being manifested in anger in the House floor. I just don't want it to manifest in violence.

I mean, do you think we can come together?

I'm going to echo what he just said. I personally and a lot of my colleagues on the Democratic Party, we also don't feel safe right now. It is a very scary time to be out there. And I would just say this as somebody who loves this country a lot. What do we want for our country? What do we want from each other, right? Can we have humanity? Can we be there in a way that transcends a lot of this naked and ugly partisanship that we see coming from this White House? All right, Kristian Ramos, Bryan Lanza, thanks so much. Maybe some candy will make everybody feel better. [LAUGHS]