Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) dropped a bombshell during a virtual town hall, accusing President Donald Trump of authoritarian behavior and attempting to strong-arm the media into submission.
The New York Post reported that during a Thursday night virtual meeting with constituents from Queens and the Bronx, Ocasio-Cortez unleashed sharp criticism of Trump, linking his influence to the recent suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel by ABC and broader efforts to control public discourse.
The town hall served as a platform for Ocasio-Cortez to vent frustrations, branding Trump as an authoritarian who thrives on projecting unchecked power.
“Authoritarians rely on the perception of power,” she declared. Well, perception isn’t reality, and painting a president as a media puppet-master might be more about scoring points than proving a conspiracy.
She didn’t stop at name-calling, alleging Trump employs extortion-like strategies to bend media outlets to his will. Examples? She pointed to incidents involving late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert as supposed proof of power plays.
Let’s unpack that—ABC suspended Kimmel after he made inaccurate remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Hours before, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr issued a stern warning to ABC, saying, “We can do this the easy or the hard way.” Coincidence or coordination? That’s the question Ocasio-Cortez wants answered.
Trump, no stranger to sparring with Kimmel, has long criticized the comedian publicly. The White House, however, brushed off any deeper motive for the suspension, insisting it stemmed from dismal ratings. A convenient excuse, perhaps, but ratings woes aren’t exactly breaking news in late-night TV.
Ocasio-Cortez sees a darker pattern, suggesting the administration counts on fear to ensure compliance from networks and personalities. If true, that’s a chilling thought for free expression, though skeptics might argue she’s weaving a narrative from unrelated threads.
Still, the suspension’s timing raises eyebrows, especially with Carr’s pointed remarks to ABC. Was this a nudge from above, or just a network making a business call? The lack of hard evidence leaves room for doubt, even if the optics aren’t great.
On the flip side, Ocasio-Cortez credited public pushback for Kimmel’s eventual return to the airwaves. She argued that threats of boycotts against Disney, ABC’s parent company, forced a reversal. That’s a win for consumer power, if her take holds water, showing that wallets can sometimes speak louder than Washington.
“People started to say, if you comply with authoritarianism, we are going to vote with our pocketbook,” she stated. Admirable sentiment, but let’s not pretend boycotts are always about principle—sometimes they’re just the loudest way to signal discontent.
The White House’s defense of the suspension as a ratings issue feels flimsy when stacked against the FCC’s involvement. If this is purely about viewership, why the federal warning? That’s a loose end the administration hasn’t tied up.
Ocasio-Cortez’s broader point is that Trump’s influence casts a shadow over media independence, a concern worth wrestling with even if one disagrees with her politics. But equating every network decision to a grand authoritarian scheme risks diluting legitimate critiques of power.
At the heart of this dust-up is a tension between free speech and accountability—Kimmel’s comments were false, and networks aren’t obligated to platform misinformation. Yet, if federal pressure played a role, that’s a dangerous precedent for any administration, red or blue.
