Elon Musk revisited former Vice President and former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' years-old call for President Donald Trump's ban from social media as she claims "free speech" concerns over Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off the air.
Harris has weighed in on Disney's decision to pull ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" off the air "indefinitely," defending Kimmel and slamming what she calls an "outright abuse of power" by the Trump administration.
"What we are witnessing is an outright abuse of power. This administration is attacking critics and using fear as a weapon to silence anyone who would speak out. Media corporations - from television networks to newspapers - are capitulating to these threats," Harris wrote on X about Kimmel's suspension. "We cannot dare to be silent or complacent in the face of this frontal assault on free speech. We, the people, deserve better."
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Many X users, including Musk, the platform's owner, were quick to point out Harris' own past statements, and some suggested they appeared to support censorship.
Musk revisited a 2019 tweet by Harris when Trump was serving his first term. Harris, a U.S. senator representing California at the time, was running for vice president when she made the post on X, now Twitter.
"Look let's be honest, @realDonaldTrump's Twitter account should be suspended," Harris wrote on Sept. 30, 2019.
Musk re-posted the message on Friday, adding a thinking face emoji.
Kimmel's show was pulled after he accused conservatives of reaching "new lows" in trying to pin a left-wing ideology on Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk, even though prosecutors reaffirmed those ties in an indictment.
"We hit some new lows over the 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 score political points from it," Kimmel said, sparking outrage.
There have been several questions about the role the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) played in the suspension. Those questioning the move are on both sides of the aisle, with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warning conservatives they "will regret" setting the precedent.
"What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel was lying. That's true, he was lying, and lying to the American people is not in the public interest," Cruz said on an episode of his podcast. "He threatens explicitly, 'We're going to cancel ABC News' license. We're going to take him off the air, so ABC cannot broadcast anymore' … He threatens it."
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr joined Fox News' Sean Hannity Sept. 17, the day the suspension was announced, and defended the move.
"Broadcasters are different than any other form of communication," Carr said, pointing to affiliate groups like Nexstar and Sinclair that announced they would no longer carry "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" He argued that local stations acted appropriately, saying they were "standing up to serve the interests of their community."
"Over the years, the FCC walked away from enforcing that public interest obligation," Carr said. "I don't think we're better off as a country for it."
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Saturday that the decision to "fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC."
"That has now been reported," Leavitt said. "And I can assure you it did not come from the White House, and there was no pressure given from the president of the United States."
The Biden-Harris administration has seen its share of censorship controversies, particularly in its interactions with social media companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a 2021 press conference, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration was "flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation."
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In August 2024, just ahead of the presidential election, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans.
Zuckerberg made the admission in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, more than a year after providing the committee with thousands of documents as part of its investigation into content moderation on online platforms.
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
