Democrats opened investigations, filed motions to subpoena and demanded the resignation of the Federal Communications Commission chair Thursday — a response to the suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that represented unusually swift pushback from a party struggling to find its footing.

But it’s not clear how Democrats will translate this relatively united front into an electoral strategy, as the party remains divided over how and how much to talk about threats to democracy ahead of next year’s pivotal midterm elections.

That tension began playing out in their descriptions of Kimmel’s suspension, as some Democrats urged their party to retool its messaging.

At a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce legislation to protect free speech, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) attacked President Donald Trump for “trying to destroy our democracy” and acting like “many would-be despots.” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) cautioned “fascism is not on the way, it is here.” But Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is running for the U.S. Senate in a high-profile primary, warned that language may be “too abstract for people” and urged Democrats to “distill it down to something people get in their everyday life.”

“This is what we saw in 2024: When you talk about ‘fascism’ and ‘democracy’ and ‘oligarchy,’ it’s too big a concept,” McMorrow said. “People are so overwhelmed and when it’s too big, people just wonder, ‘well, what can I possibly do about it?’”

A House Democratic member, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, warned of “a risk in talking about it in hyperbolic terms,” adding that there’s distinction in framing. “If you’re saying, ‘they’re taking away your speech and they’re canceling you,’ that’s more powerful than saying, ‘they’re taking away your democracy,’” the lawmaker added.

The Kimmel controversy — and how to talk about it — lands in the middle of an already-inflamed political landscape. Following last week’s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Kimmel made comments Monday that appeared to align Kirk’s alleged killer with the MAGA movement. ABC announced Kimmel’s suspension on Wednesday night, after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened the network if it didn’t take action, telling a conservative podcaster, “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

“It’s very clearly part of a crackdown on freedom of speech,” former federal Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Blue Light News. “If we can’t have comedians, let alone law firms or academics or journalists speaking their mind, then this isn’t a free country.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a statement with colleagues lambasting the FCC’s “corrupt abuse of power.”

Even so, veteran Democratic strategist David Axelrod warned that Democrats must not lose focus.

“The main thing needs to be the main thing and the main thing is that people have struggles in their lives in this economy, and Democrats need to keep that the focus,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean that you can ignore what isn’t just a free speech issue.”

Trump celebrated Kimmel’s suspension during a press conference in the United Kingdom on Thursday, while arguing the late-night host “was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else.”

“He said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump said. “You can call that free speech or not, he was fired for lack of talent.”

Even some Trump-friendly comedians and podcasters have raised concerns over Kimmel’s suspension. Tim Dillon, who interviewed then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance last year, posted on Instagram: “I am against Kimmel being taken off the air and against people being shot for their opinions. See how easy it is?” One of the hosts of the Flagrant podcast, who interviewed Trump in 2024, said, “in terms of censorship, freedom of speech is more under attack now, honestly, than I think it’s ever been.”

Democrats see it as an opening for breaking through to “people who are not hard partisans,” said Tim Hogan, a Democratic National Committee senior adviser.

“There is a broad audience that’s splintering from Trump’s coalition that understands everyone and anyone could be a target for something they say,” Hogan said. “This is not amorphous, this is going after your right to free speech.”

North Carolina state Sen. Graig Meyer urged his party to “meme this” rather than lecture voters on it, adding that, “yes, it’s authoritarianism,” but “Democrats should talk about it like, ‘Republicans want to take away your laughs,’” he said.

“The left is so bad at doing that type of culturally embedded storytelling and Republicans are so good at it,” Meyer said. “This is a chance to change the narrative around Trump, and it’s a chance to change the cultural narrative around Democrats, being willing to fight and providing an alternative.”

The flurry of controversial events is forcing a party in the political wilderness to confront anew an issue that bedeviled it during the presidential election last year.

Leaning on democracy as a campaign message didn’t help Democrats in 2024, when they deployed it against Trump and he nevertheless won the popular vote. Kamala Harris held one of her final campaign rallies last fall on the Ellipse, the same spot where Trump rallied his own supporters to march on the Capitol.

Several national Democrats said privately that Kimmel and free speech are “not going to be the top midterm issues Democrats are talking about,” one strategist said granted anonymity to discuss it candidly.

“Poll after poll shows that Trump’s threats to democracy aren’t a top issue for swing voters, and I don’t see it dominating in TV ads next fall,” said Democratic pollster Brian Stryker. “But sometimes you have to fight for things because it’s the right thing to do for the country and not because it’s going to win you an election. And if we don’t fight now, we may not have elections to fight to win in the future.”

Adam Wren and Cassandra Dumay contributed reporting.

Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension from the late-night airwaves has thrust lawmakers, government officials and the president to the forefront of the debate over free speech while also deepening the partisan divide amid the fallout over conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.

Since Disney announced Wednesday night that it would pull Kimmel’s show indefinitely over the comedian’s comments about Kirk’s slaying, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr — who last night pressured ABC and local broadcasters to “to take action” against Kimmel — on Thursday morning defended his decision and accused the late-night show host of misleading Americans; House Democratic leadership in turn called on him to resign; and President Donald Trump told reporters in the U.K. that Kimmel was fired over bad ratings.

“They should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump said. “You can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”

Even former Vice President Mike Pence weighed in during an early Thursday morning appearance on CNBC to chide Kimmel for his comments while also expressing discomfort with Carr’s pressure campaign.

“The First Amendment doesn’t protect entertainers from being fired by their employers,” he said, adding, “I would have preferred that the FCC didn’t weigh in in the wake of this.”

The furor over Kimmel’s comments highlights how deeply divided America has become and how somewhat insensitive or even offensive remarks by public figures — and even the general public — have become fuel for those seeking to quelch opposing views.

Carr on Thursday accused Kimmel of upsetting “lots and lots of people” and hinted at going even further though, telling CNBC “we’re not done yet.”

“We’re in the midst of a very disruptive moment right now, and I just, frankly, expect that we’re going to continue to see changes in the media ecosystem,” Carr said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday was among those demanding Carr resign.

“I can’t think of a greater threat to free speech than Carr in many, many years,” Schumer told POLITICO. “He’s despicable. He’s anti-American. He ought to resign, and Trump ought to fire him.”

Trump Wednesday night celebrated Kimmel’s show being pulled before calling on NBC to cancel “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday called the administration’s involvement in Kimmel’s cancellation “dangerous.”

“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama said in a post on X on Thursday.

His comments follow remarks he made on Tuesday night during an event in Pennsylvania, where the former president called Kirk’s killing “horrific,” though he added that he disagreed with many of the conservative activist’s statements.

“We can also, at the same time, say that I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake,” Obama said. “I can say that I disagree with the suggestion that my wife or Justice Jackson does not have adequate brain processing power. I can say that I disagree that Martin Luther King was awful.”

The Trump administration has also faced backlash from Democrats and some conservatives after Attorney General Pam Bondi proposed the idea of cracking down on “hate speech” in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting.

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused the administration of trying to “intimidate” companies.

“We’ve got the Trump administration literally targeting individuals — you saw it with [Stephen] Colbert, now you’re seeing it with Kimmel — anybody that’s criticizing this administration,” Pritzker said. “They’re using the power of government to intimidate companies to fire people.”

Back in Washington, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said her Republican colleagues have “selective outrage.”

“Republicans scream ‘free speech’… until the truth hurts their fragile politics,” she wrote on X. “Jimmy Kimmel gets suspended, but hate, lies, and conspiracy theories run free.”

Barack Obama on Thursday condemned the Trump administration for its actions in the lead-up to Disney’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night comedy show, furthering the former president’s foray into the charged political climate in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing.

“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama wrote in a post on X on Thursday morning, about 15 hours after Disney announced it was suspending Kimmel.

The comedian came under fire from White House officials for comments he made during a Monday broadcast of his show that appeared to align Kirk’s suspected killer with the MAGA movement.

Democrats have panned the comedian’s suspension, which came after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened consequences if the network failed to take action against the comedian in a Wednesday podcast with conservative commentator Benny Johnson.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told Johnson, threatening “additional work for the FCC.”

Key Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are now calling for the FCC chair’s resignation.

“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,” Obama wrote, linking to a New York Times report that detailed the Washington Post’s firing of Karen Attiah, a columnist who said she was let go for her social media activity following Kirk’s killing.

The White House and FCC both did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Obama’s comments.

At an event in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Obama himself mourned the loss of the Turning Point USA founder while making it clear that he disagrees with much of what Kirk stood for. And he faulted the current administration for the bleak state of American political discourse.

“When I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents vermin, enemies who need to be targeted, that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now,” Obama said.