The FCC once yanked licenses from stations that aired wardrobe malfunctions at the Super Bowl.
Now a Republican senator is standing between Jimmy Kimmel and the consequence he has earned for years.
Ted Cruz just became the most useful man in Hollywood – and he has no idea.
What Cole Allen Did
Cole Allen – a 31-year-old engineer from Torrance, California – booked a room at the Washington Hilton on April 6th.
He trained from Los Angeles to Chicago, then continued on to Washington.
He checked in the day before the White House Correspondents' Dinner, dressed in black, and rode an unguarded back stairwell ten floors down toward the ballroom.
His manifesto named him the "Friendly Federal Assassin."
He listed Trump administration officials as targets – ranked from highest to lowest.
When he reached the security checkpoint, he ran straight through the magnetometer with the shotgun raised.
A Secret Service officer took a round to the chest.
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The vest saved his life.
Allen now faces charges for attempting to assassinate the President of the United States.
That is what happened four days after Jimmy Kimmel called Melania Trump an "expectant widow" on ABC.
What the FCC Did – and What Cruz Did Next
The FCC, under Chairman Brendan Carr, moved immediately.
It ordered Disney's eight ABC-owned stations to file for early license renewal within 30 days – licenses not due until 2028 at the earliest, some not until 2031.
Carr's stated basis: a long-running investigation into Disney's DEI discrimination practices.
Disney had already been stonewalling document production – Carr said the company was hitting the agency with the "okey-doke."
Trump went on Truth Social calling Kimmel's joke "a despicable call to violence."
Melania wrote that Kimmel "shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate."
The National Religious Broadcasters filed a formal FCC complaint arguing the joke raised "serious concerns about the normalization and potential incitement of political violence."
Then Ted Cruz stepped in.
Cruz told Punchbowl News on Tuesday that "it is not the government's job to censor speech" and that he "does not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police."
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He said essentially the same thing last September when Carr went after Kimmel over the Charlie Kirk assassination – comparing Carr to a mob enforcer from Goodfellas on his podcast both times.
Both times, Cruz handed Disney's legal team the most credible Republican cover it will ever have.
Why This Pattern Should Infuriate You
Cruz is not wrong about the constitutional principle.
But here is what he is actually doing when he invokes it on behalf of Jimmy Kimmel.
He is handing ABC a Republican senator's name – a MAGA loyalist, a Harvard-trained constitutional lawyer, a man who clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist – to put in the first paragraph of every legal brief Disney files against the FCC.
He is giving every Democrat in the country a clean soundbite: "Even Ted Cruz says the FCC went too far."
And he is doing all of this for a man who joked about the President dying days before someone actually showed up to make it happen.
Cruz admitted last September that he was "thrilled" when ABC briefly pulled Kimmel off the air – but insisted the government must not be the one to do it.
There is a real legal distinction between ABC making a business decision and the federal government coercing a network.
What Cruz refuses to acknowledge is that his repeated public statements are not neutral legal observations.
They are ammunition.
Every time Cruz steps to the microphone to invoke the principle, he hands the left a weapon with his fingerprints on it.
Carr's DEI investigation is legitimate on its own terms – Disney was creating what Carr described as "racially segregated spaces" inside the company, and document production confirmed the company had been less than forthcoming with the agency.
That case stands without Cruz's interference.
Cole Allen is in federal custody facing life in prison.
Jimmy Kimmel is still on ABC.
And the only Republican with the credibility to question that outcome spent the week making sure nothing changes.
Sources:
- Olivia Rondeau, "Ted Cruz Defends Jimmy Kimmel's Melania Trump 'Widow' Joke from FCC: Government Can't Be 'Speech Police,'" Breitbart News, April 30, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, "Suspect in White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting Charged with Attempt to Assassinate the President," DOJ Office of Public Affairs, April 27, 2026.
- "2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting," Wikipedia, updated May 1, 2026.
- "FCC Chairman Carr Goes After ABC O&Os Licenses Over DEI Policies," T Dog Media, April 2026.
- Diego Areas Munhoz, "Cruz Slams FCC Again Over Kimmel," Punchbowl News, April 29, 2026.