After years of blatantly lying on public airwaves, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel found himself in hot water with the Federal Communications Commission for lying about Charlie Kirk’s murderer and mocking Donald Trump’s response to the assassination. After Disney suspended Kimmel, several Democrats with a history of pushing censorship came to his defense, wrongly citing “free speech.”
Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Brian Stelter, Hakeem Jeffries, and Eric Swalwell are among the leftists furious at Kimmel’s firing — much more furious, in fact, than they were at Kirk’s assassination.
First of all, let’s clarify that being investigated by the FCC for lying on subsidized public TV and being suspended by your own employer for it is not a First Amendment violation. Secondly, let’s recall how much Kimmel loved real anti-constitutional censorship in the past against a sitting president:
LIVE LOOK – Trump’s bathroom pic.twitter.com/r7rivFM2Gi
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) January 9, 2021
But Swalwell has his pants — the ones he didn’t give Fang Fang — in a knot. He went on CNN, where the host asked, “Congressman, I see you are wearing a hat. What does that hat say?” Swalwell, with a “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” hat on, huffed, “Damn right I am, John. I was a guest on the Jimmy Kimmel show. He every night has a right to come into any house that wants to watch and entertain Americans, just as Greg Gutfeld on Fox has a right to be not funny and go on his network and entertain Americans.” First of all, no one has a right to be on TV. Secondly, it’s Kimmel who has no humor.
Swalwell practically sobbed, “It's a part of who we are, John, and frankly, it should shake every American that the President of the United States is out there firing comedians who make fun of him. That is not who we are, and every American should care and stand up to this.” He didn’t used to care about free speech.
In 2020, Swalwell was himself specifically pressuring Facebook to censor online speech. Referring to an allegedly doctored video of Nancy Pelosi, Swalwell posted, “It’s hard enough to defend against foreign actors disrupting our politics. At the very least, we should be able to expect U.S. companies will not tolerate the tactics we despise of our enemies. Do better, @Facebook. #takeitdown.”
But Swalwell took it a step farther when, ahead of the 2020 elections, he pressed Big Tech executives for a “pledge” that they would censor speech that the congressman considered to be misinformation specifically related to the election. In other words, he literally demanded censorship as election interference. “Donald Trump and his team attempt to sow misinformation online every single day. We need social media platforms to be ready to protect the integrity of our elections and the peaceful transition of power, before it is too late,” the Dem congressman lectured.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are just as hypocritical as Swalwell. Jeffries is demanding FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s resignation and accusing Republicans of waging war on the First Amendment after years of the Biden administration’s censorship complex:
House Democratic Leadership Statement on the Suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. pic.twitter.com/WOVSC51unG
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) September 18, 2025
Related: FCC Chair Roasts Stelter After Kimmel’s Suspension
As for Schumer, he already has new legislation called the “No Political Enemies Act,” which he says will protect free speech, but which actually just tries to add special protections for leftist liars. Now contrast Schumer’s and Jeffries’s current babble with their demands in 2023 that Rupert Murdoch ban his Fox News hosts from talking about allegations of election fraud:
To Rupert Murdoch:
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 1, 2023
Direct Tucker Carlson and other hosts on your network to stop spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.
From @RepJeffries and me: pic.twitter.com/awcikxszeS
We could no doubt provide dozens of such examples of Democrat hypocrisy on this topic, but the point is the same — Democrats hate free speech. They have been so aggressive in attacking the First Amendment that they are internationally infamous as the party of censorship.
They don’t care about Kimmel because of free speech; they’re outraged that a leftist propagandist with plummeting ratings, scanty viewership, no integrity, and little talent finally faced consequences for his lies. After all, Democrats are used to a system rigged against their opponents and in their favor. They’re finding out times have changed.
