Klobuchar Questions Carr on Censorship and Free Speech at FCC Oversight Hearing

WASHINGTON - Today, during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing to conduct oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) questioned FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about his conduct threatening free speech, citing his previous comments about Jimmy Kimmel, and about President Trump's executive order which attempts to eliminate state AI safety standards.

A rough transcript is available below and video is available HERE.

Senator Klobuchar: I would prefer to be asking questions about the bipartisan work that needs to be done on universal service and broadband and spectrum, and I'll ask that in writing, but the events of this year moved me to focus on free speech and our democracy. Chairman Carr, in 2022, you tweeted, "Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion. That's why people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship." Yes or no, do you still agree that political satire should be protected speech?

Brendan Carr: Yes Senator and whenever that satire or any other programming is over the public airways. For broadcasters, there's a public interest standard, and there's a news distortion rule, a broadcast…

Klobuchar: You answered it, you answered it, yes, and I'm just gonna go on. … You know, I believe, too, that there is no place in chilling political satire, but after Jimmy Kimmel's monologue, you went on a podcast and suggested that ABC should take Kimmel off the air, saying, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Those were your words. Do you think it is appropriate to use your position to threaten companies that broadcast political satire?

Carr: I think any licensee that operates on the public airwaves has a responsibility to comply with the public interest standard, and that's been the case for decades.

Klobuchar: I asked if you think it's appropriate for you to use your position to threaten companies, and this incident with Kimmel wasn't an isolated event. You've launched investigations into every major broadcast network except FOX. Is that correct?

Carr: I don't know if that's true or not. We do have investigations going on at NPR and PBS. We have a number of investigations that are ongoing. I think if you step back over the years, I think the FCC has walked away from enforcing the public interest standard, and I don't think that's a good thing.

Klobuchar: Okay, you brought up social media. So do you think it's appropriate for after a horrific murder and the stabbing, the stabbing of Rob Reiner and his wife? Do you think it's appropriate for someone to say that it happened, when they know better, "reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome, he was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights." Do you think that's appropriate for the president of the United States to do that? And if Jimmy Kimmel would have said that, would you have threatened to take him off the air?

Carr: Senator, look, Democrats on this dais are accusing me of engaging in censorship, and now you're trying to encourage me to police speech on the internet. I'm simply not going to do it.

Klobuchar: I'm just asking you. These are the kind of words, I think they are cruel, I think they hurt President Trump to say that kind of thing. I think it hurts him with trust from the American people. But this is the kind of stuff that's going on right now, and yet you are going after broadcast stations, except for FOX, and making threats.

Carr: Senator, we are applying the law. Let's say broadcast TV is fundamentally different than any other forms of media, whether it's cable, podcasts, soapbox, or man on the street, there's a public trustee model that Congress has set up. When you go on a podcast…

Klobuchar: But you think there should be no there should be no rules in place when it comes to tech platforms?

Carr: I think there's no public-interest obligation; there is no license…

Klobuchar: Do you think we should change the laws? Here's one. Last week, President Trump came out with this dangerous and likely illegal AI rule that preempts all the states from doing anything to try to save people, whether it is kids that are being exposed to content they shouldn't see, or fentanyl, or political videos that are lies. So, do you think Congress has the authority to preempt state laws, or do you think President Trump and the agencies like yourself have the authority to preempt state law when it comes to the internet and safety with AI?

Carr: Well, when it comes to AI in particular, there's an executive order. It asks the FCC to initiate a proceeding. We're going to initiate a proceeding. We're open-minded on where that goes. But look, if you want to step back and talk about weaponization, we saw that for four years in the Biden Administration, Senate Democrats, including …

Klobuchar: Joe Biden is no longer president. You are head of the FCC, and Donald Trump is the president. And I'm trying to deal with this right now. So I would ask you, Ms. Gomez, what are the risks of the commission trying to preempt state laws, particularly when there are no federal guardrails, because our colleagues, despite some good efforts, refuse to pass any kind of even minimal rules when it comes to AI, what are the risks of the commission or a president then trying to preempt state laws that can legally put state laws in place?

Anna Gomez: Thank you, Senator. I believe that the FCC has very dubious authority to actually preempt state laws in this case, because without a comprehensive federal framework, there is nothing for the FCC to preempt. The Communications Act did not actually talk about artificial intelligence or provide authority to the FCC to do this preemption, so I'm very dubious of our authority to do so. That said, we have sought comment on this.

Klobuchar: Okay. Thank you very much.

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