00:00Now, on the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday, and what Ted Cruz had to say.
00:06Well, yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony from FCC Chair Brendan Carr,
00:12Brendan Carr, the first time he's appeared publicly before the Senate after trying to
00:16bully ABC and Disney into pulling Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
00:21Remember back then that Carr said in a podcast, we could do this the easy way or the hard
00:25way. And he threatened ABC and Disney with investigations. What thuggery.
00:33He threatened to pull broadcast licenses. These are naked attempts at censorship in violation
00:41of the First Amendment's protection to free speech. The threatening and bullying of the
00:46media into simply being a mouthpiece for Donald Trump is one of the greatest threats our democracy
00:52faces. And Mr. Carr has been a willing and eager henchman to achieve that very dangerous
00:59goal.
01:00It was disturbing to hear Mr. Carr double down yesterday on his attempt to take Kimmel off
01:07the air. And it was troubling that too few Republicans were willing to stand up to him.
01:12But at least one Republican, the chair of the committee, the junior senator from Texas, Senator
01:20Cruz, spoke out against Mr. Carr's bully tactics. I don't agree very much with Senator Cruz on
01:28most everything, he says. And I didn't agree with many of the things he said yesterday at
01:33the committee. But he is, but Cruz is absolutely correct that Mr. Carr's conduct is dangerous.
01:41On the issue of Mr. Carr and the censoring of the news media, Senator Cruz is right on the money.
01:51He's right when he said Mr. Carr's behavior is the kind of stuff you see in Goodfellas.
01:55And no government, no matter who's in charge, has the right to silence, intimidate, or censor
02:03protected free speech, no matter where it comes from. Mr. President, there are lots of dangers
02:09to our democracy under this Trump regime. It's becoming more and more like a regime.
02:16But one of the top is the intimidating of media, is the consolidation of media to only have a voice
02:28that protects Donald Trump and defends Donald Trump. That's what dictators do. That's what
02:37Orban has done in Hungary, in Erdogan, in Turkey, and dictators throughout history try to censor the
02:45media. Consolidate the media so they are all under the thumb of the leader, of the dictator.
02:52This is a dramatic danger, a huge danger, one of the greatest dangers to our democracy.
03:01And Ted Cruz talked about that yesterday. Frankly, if Cruz can speak out against the FCC's obvious
03:10bullying tactics, so can other Republicans. Other Republicans should join him. Everyone
03:18should join him. What Mr. Carr is doing is a huge danger. And both Democrats and Republicans
03:25should unite to call this dangerous conduct out. Cruz's comments yesterday was the first
03:32step. And more on his side of the aisle in particular should join him. Now, there's also
03:40the issue of affordability, which Mr. Carr did not address. Yesterday, in committee, Republicans
03:50did not speak out on the issue that is in the very front of every Republican's mind. While the
03:58Republicans rubber-stamped Carr's destruction of free speech, too many of them did that. They
04:03didn't bother to question Carr about how families have to choose between internet and cell service
04:10for their kids and putting food on the table. The costs are going through the roof, led by
04:16the big media carriers like AT&T and Verizon. Senator Cantwell spoke out strongly on this issue.
04:25It's a cost issue. It's a cost-of-living issue. People hate paying a lot of bills that they don't
04:31have the money for. And one of them is their bill for the social media, for the internet. Democrats
04:42have a very simple message for Carr in the Trump administration. We need high-quality and low-cost
04:48wireless service, not the other way around. I yield the floor.
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