What Carr’s FCC moves and Justice Department’s political prosecutions have in common

After Donald Trump spent months targeting ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, the president’s Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, appeared on a far-right podcast last September and discussed his agency’s role in granting broadcast licenses. Referring specifically to a Kimmel monologue that Republicans didn’t like, Carr added, “When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

The comments were not well received, and even Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas conceded that Carr’s rhetoric made him sound like an organized crime figure. Nevertheless, roughly seven months later, the public is getting a better sense of what “the hard way” looks like. MS NOW reported:

The Federal Communications Commission launched an early review Tuesday of Disney’s broadcast station licenses, an unusually aggressive move that came a day after the president called on Disney-owned ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over another joke.

The process, known as an early license review, will tee up a lengthy legal review of Disney’s eight ABC-owned and operated station licenses, years before they were scheduled for FCC renewal. The commission is responsible for licensing local TV stations to broadcast network-level programming, such as ABC’s, over public airwaves across the country.

The report added that it’s “highly unusual for the federal agency to file early renewal orders,” and it’s probably not a coincidence that the developments come immediately after the White House condemned a joke Kimmel told last week about the age difference between the president and the first lady.

In an online statement, Anna Gomez, the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, wrote, “This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere. This political stunt won’t stick.”

Time will tell what, if anything, comes of Carr’s gambit, but as the review process gets underway, there are a handful of elements worth keeping in mind.

First, Trump has long been fixated on the idea of targeting networks’ broadcast licenses for airing programming he disapproves of. That his highly controversial FCC chief is thinking along similar lines is a radical development that should concern anyone watching the Republican administration’s embrace of authoritarian-style tactics.

Second, this isn’t exactly a political winner for Team Trump. The first White House offensive against Kimmel was a political fiasco that ended up helping the comedian. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Republicans looking ahead to the midterm elections would prefer to see the president and his team avoid fights like these.

Third, the timing of Carr’s offensive is emblematic of a larger problem: The FCC chair’s move against one Trump critic coincides with the Justice Department’s prosecutions of other Trump critics. It’s hard not to see them as two sides of the same coin: The president’s perceived political foes are feeling the brunt of weaponized federal powers.

Finally, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, who was recently tapped to go after people the White House doesn’t like, appeared on CNBC earlier this week and boasted about the “palpable” commitment the president has “to the First Amendment.”

It was literally the next day when Trump’s FCC chair, responding to a joke the White House didn’t like, launched an early review of Disney’s broadcast station licenses, opening a new front in the president’s offensive against free speech.

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