{"id":13433,"date":"2025-09-19T01:32:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/dems-latch-onto-kimmel-suspension-fascism-is-not-on-the-way-it-is-here\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T01:32:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:32:31","slug":"dems-latch-onto-kimmel-suspension-fascism-is-not-on-the-way-it-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/dems-latch-onto-kimmel-suspension-fascism-is-not-on-the-way-it-is-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems latch onto Kimmel suspension: ‘Fascism is not on the way, it is here.’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democrats opened investigations<\/u><\/a>, filed motions to subpoena<\/u><\/a> and demanded<\/u><\/a> the resignation<\/u><\/a> of the Federal Communications Commission chair Thursday \u2014 a response to the suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that represented unusually swift pushback from a party struggling to find its footing.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s 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\u2019s pivotal midterm elections.<\/p>\n

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

At a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce legislation to protect free speech, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) attacked President Donald Trump for \u201ctrying to destroy our democracy\u201d and acting like \u201cmany would-be despots.\u201d Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) cautioned \u201cfascism is not on the way, it is here.\u201d But Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is running for the U.S. Senate in a high-profile primary, warned that language may be \u201ctoo abstract for people\u201d and urged Democrats to \u201cdistill it down to something people get in their everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what we saw in 2024: When you talk about \u2018fascism\u2019 and \u2018democracy\u2019 and \u2018oligarchy,\u2019 it\u2019s too big a concept,\u201d McMorrow said. \u201cPeople are so overwhelmed and when it\u2019s too big, people just wonder, \u2018well, what can I possibly do about it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A House Democratic member, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, warned of \u201ca risk in talking about it in hyperbolic terms,\u201d adding that there\u2019s distinction in framing. \u201cIf you\u2019re saying, \u2018they’re taking away your speech and they’re canceling you,\u2019 that\u2019s more powerful than saying, \u2018they\u2019re taking away your democracy,\u2019\u201d the lawmaker added.<\/p>\n

The Kimmel controversy \u2014 and how to talk about it \u2014 lands in the middle of an already-inflamed political landscape. Following last week\u2019s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Kimmel made comments Monday that appeared to align Kirk\u2019s alleged killer with the MAGA movement. ABC announced Kimmel\u2019s suspension<\/u><\/a> on Wednesday night, after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened the network if it didn\u2019t take action, telling a conservative podcaster, \u201cwe can do this the easy way or the hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It’s very clearly part of a crackdown on freedom of speech,\u201d former federal Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Blue Light News. \u201cIf we can’t have comedians, let alone law firms or academics or journalists speaking their mind, then this isn’t a free country.”<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a statement<\/a> with colleagues lambasting the FCC’s “corrupt abuse of power.”<\/p>\n

Even so, veteran Democratic strategist David Axelrod warned that Democrats must not lose focus. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump celebrated Kimmel\u2019s suspension during a press conference<\/u><\/a> in the United Kingdom on Thursday, while arguing the late-night host \u201cwas fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou can call that free speech or not, he was fired for lack of talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even some Trump-friendly comedians and podcasters have raised concerns over Kimmel\u2019s suspension. Tim Dillon, who interviewed then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance<\/u><\/a> last year, posted on Instagram: \u201cI am against Kimmel being taken off the air and against people being shot for their opinions. See how easy it is?\u201d One of the hosts of the Flagrant podcast, who interviewed Trump in 2024, said<\/u><\/a>, \u201cin terms of censorship, freedom of speech is more under attack now, honestly, than I think it\u2019s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats see it as an opening for breaking through to \u201cpeople who are not hard partisans,\u201d said Tim Hogan, a Democratic National Committee senior adviser.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a broad audience that\u2019s splintering from Trump\u2019s coalition that understands everyone and anyone could be a target for something they say,\u201d Hogan said. \u201cThis is not amorphous, this is going after your right to free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Carolina state Sen. Graig Meyer urged his party to \u201cmeme this\u201d rather than lecture voters on it, adding that, \u201cyes, it\u2019s authoritarianism,\u201d but \u201cDemocrats should talk about it like, \u2018Republicans want to take away your laughs,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe left is so bad at doing that type of culturally embedded storytelling and Republicans are so good at it,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cThis is a chance to change the narrative around Trump, and it\u2019s a chance to change the cultural narrative around Democrats, being willing to fight and providing an alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Leaning on democracy as a campaign message didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Several national Democrats said privately that Kimmel and free speech are \u201cnot going to be the top midterm issues Democrats are talking about,\u201d one strategist said granted anonymity to discuss it candidly.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoll after poll shows that Trump\u2019s threats to democracy aren’t a top issue for swing voters, and I don\u2019t see it dominating in TV ads next fall,\u201d said Democratic pollster Brian Stryker. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Wren and Cassandra Dumay contributed reporting.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats opened investigations, filed motions to subpoena and demanded the resignation of the Federal Communications Commission chair Thursday \u2014 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\u2019s not clear how Democrats will translate this relatively united front into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}