WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Welcome to the "News Hour."

The political fallout from the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk continues.

Last night, Disney suddenly suspended ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" following comments Kimmel made about how President Trump's supporters were responding to Kirk's murder.

That suspension was cheered by the president and his allies, but has also raised concern of censorship and the future of the First Amendment.

Today, Democrats on Capitol Hill introduced a bill to protect free speech.

SEN.

CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): That's censorship.

That's state speech control.

That's not America.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In a fierce rebuke to Kimmel's suspension, Senate Democrats today accused the Trump administration of using Charlie Kirk's murder to silence critics.

It began four days ago.

ABC's late-night host took jabs at Trump and the right over their weekend messaging about the suspect in Kirk's assassination.

JIMMY KIMMEL, Host, "Jimmy Kimmel Live": We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That monologue aired after a weekend when Utah's Republican governor had suggested the suspect had leftist ideology, but the day before prosecutors and the suspect's mother echoed that same belief.

MAN: Intent to seek the death penalty.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Then yesterday, some sharp criticism from the chairman of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission.

BRENDAN CARR, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission: I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Trump-appointed Brendan Carr threatened federal action if local ABC affiliates didn't do something about Kimmel.

BRENDAN CARR: These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Then a company called Nexstar, which operates multiple ABC stations, said it would start pulling Kimmel off the air.

Nexstar needs the FCC's approval for a proposed $6.2 billion merger.

Then more dominoes.

Conservative Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest owner of ABC affiliates, said they'd do the same.

Sinclair said Kimmel must apologize to Kirk's family and -- quote - - "make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk family and Turning Point USA," which is Kirk's political group.

While meeting with the British prime minister in the U.K.

today, President Trump rejected the idea that free speech was under attack.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.

And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person.

And they should have fired him a long time ago.

So you can call that free speech or not.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This summer, the president celebrated when CBS canceled the show of another of his critics, Stephen Colbert.

CBS cited financial reasons for the cancellation, even as its parent company, Paramount, was finishing a deal of its own which also required FCC approval.

But critics say Colbert's and Kimmel's political positions were why they were targeted.

MARC MARON, Talk Show Host: This is what authoritarianism looks like right now in this country.

It's happening.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last night, multiple comedians denounced Kimmel's suspension as censorship, including Wanda Sykes, who was set to be a guest on "Kimmel" last night.

WANDA SYKES, Comedian: He didn't end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week.

But he did end freedom of speech within his first year.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, today, former late-night host David Letterman weighed in, talking with our colleague "The Atlantic"'s Jeffrey Goldberg.

DAVID LETTERMAN, Comedian: And you can't go around firing somebody because you're fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office.

That's just not how this works.

(CHEERING) WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Others celebrated the move to take Kimmel off the air.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX News Anchor: Kimmel's recent vile remarks about Charlie Kirk's assassination should come as no surprise, given his lengthy history of mocking conservatives, never-ending Trump bashing, which is why his ratings sucked.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, earlier today, FCC Chair Carr warned more federal action could be coming.

BRENDAN CARR: But, yes, I don't think this is the last shoe to drop.

This is a massive shift that's taking place in the media ecosystem.

I think the consequences are going to continue to flow.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Sinclair Broadcasting says, this Friday, it will replace Kimmel's show with a tribute to Charlie Kirk.

For the record, we asked FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for an interview, and his office did not respond.

For more, we turn now to Dylan Byers.

He is senior media correspondent at Puck.

Dylan Byers, thank you so much.

Help us understand, what has been the reaction in the media world to Kimmel getting pulled off the air?

DYLAN BYERS, Puck: Well, it's been rather overwhelming.

I mean, I think there's a pretty broad consensus here, and certainly my own reporting and the reporting of others bears this out, that this was a decision that Disney CEO Bob Iger made due to the pressure from the FCC.

The remarks that you referenced that Kimmel made came on a Monday night, there was no move to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air by Disney for his show the following night.

But after the chairman, Carr, went out and gave an interview and suggested that he would put pressure on ABC, after Nexstar decided that it would preempt Kimmel's show on its owned-and-operated stations, then Disney made the move to preempt Jimmy Kimmel's show.

And, look, you mentioned it there in your package.

There was some precedent for this with Paramount's decision to cancel Colbert, which was justified by the fact that Colbert was losing a significant amount of money for the network.

And so there's some ambiguity around this decision.

But there doesn't seem to be any of that ambiguity here.

This is pretty clearly a decision that Disney came to in light of that FCC pressure, in light of that Nexstar pressure, perhaps also because they need regulatory approval for another deal that they're -- that Disney is seeking to acquire Fubo.

So, this -- look, the FCC certainly has the power to renew licenses, to revoke licenses.

It does not have the power to censor content.

And what we are seeing here is a sort of indirect, albeit pretty brazen attempt to influence the programming on ABC Television.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Earlier today we spoke with a constitutional scholar, Ilya Somin.

He's a professor of law at George Mason University and also at the Libertarian think tank the Cato institute.

Here's what he had to say about Trump and the FCC's actions here.

ILYA SOMIN, George Mason University: Trump is definitely abusing the power of the FCC.

Whatever other authority it might legitimately have, it does not have the power to force stations to take people off the air merely because they have used the president objects too.

And it definitely is a violation of the First Amendment.

If there's anything that violates the First Amendment, it's government pressure and coercion to censor political speech.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Now, that is something that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr used to believe.

There are multiple statements where he is echoing that same idea, that it is not the FCC's job to police speech.

How has he responded today as to as to how he has had this reversal of opinion?

DYLAN BYERS: Well, look, I don't want to editorialize here, but I would say, if you're looking for intellectual consistency here among many officials in this administration, you would be hard-pressed to find it.

Look, by going out and giving an interview and just suggesting that you can do this the easy way or the hard way, at the end of the day, I suppose you can technically say it was Disney's decision, I didn't do it.

But that sort of reeks of sort of mafia-level tactics of sort of veiled threats and coercion that Disney, by virtue of the position it's in and by virtue of the FCC's leverage here, that it was willing to, frankly, capitulate to.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The MAGA world, the president himself and all of his supporters have celebrated this move, saying that this was a consequence of his actions, of Kimmel's actions.

What else have they been arguing as to why they think this is a great thing that has happened?

DYLAN BYERS: Well, look, I think there's been a longstanding feeling among the right, certainly among Trump supporters, that media generally speaking, what we usually refer to as mainstream media, has been biased, and that if you believe that the -- that broadcast networks should be sort of servicing the American people, then that sort of bias is a bad thing.

And I think they would view the actions against Colbert or against Kimmel as progress in that regard.

I think what I would say and I think what many folks across the political spectrum have pointed out over the course of the last 24 hours is that what is happening now to, say, ABC, to Jimmy Kimmel is something -- is the kind of power and coercion that a future Democratic president could try to wield against conservative critics.

So this does not set a good precedent.

At the end of the day, one thing that I think we can all agree we all value here is living in a society where people are able to go out and make jokes and state political opinions without fear of retribution from their employer because their employer has a deal pending approval by the federal government.

And I would just say that anyone celebrating this move now would -- probably going to rethink that in future administrations, if future administrations try to wield that power too.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is Dylan Byers at Puck.

Dylan, thank you so much for your time.

DYLAN BYERS: Thank you.