Elon Musk highlighted a 2019 tweet from former Vice President Kamala Harris calling for President Donald Trump to be banned from social media as she defended “free speech” after ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel over his comments on Charlie Kirk. Harris criticized Disney’s decision to suspend Kimmel, calling it an “outright abuse of power” by the Trump administration.
“What we are witnessing is an outright abuse of power. This administration is attacking critics and using fear as a weapon to silence anyone who would speak out. Media corporations — from television networks to newspapers — are capitulating to these threats,” Harris wrote on Twitter, now called X.
“We cannot dare to be silent or complacent in the face of this frontal assault on free speech. We, the people, deserve better.”
{{/usCountry}}“We cannot dare to be silent or complacent in the face of this frontal assault on free speech. We, the people, deserve better.”
{{/usCountry}}Many users on X, including Musk, pointed to Harris’ past statements, suggesting they appeared to support censorship.
Elon Musk re-posts Kamla Harris's 2019 post
Musk re-posted a 2019 tweet from Harris, when she was a U.S. senator and running for vice president, which read, “Look let’s be honest, @realDonaldTrump’s Twitter account should be suspended,” she wrote on Sept. 30, 2019. Musk added a thinking face emoji, according to New York Post.
Why was Jimmy Kimmel's show suspended?
Kimmel’s show was pulled after he criticized conservatives for trying to link left-wing ideology to Tyler Robinson, accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel said, “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.”
The suspension raised questions about the FCC’s role. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz warned conservatives about the precedent. “What he is saying is Jimmy Kimmel was lying. That’s true, he was lying, and lying to the American people is not in the public interest,” Cruz said on his podcast. “He threatens explicitly — we’re going to cancel ABC News’ license. We’re going to take him off the air, so ABC cannot broadcast anymore … He threatens it.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told Fox News on Sept. 17 that local stations like Nexstar and Sinclair acted properly by no longer carrying the show. “Broadcasters are different than any other form of communication,” he said. “Over the years, the FCC walked away from enforcing that public interest obligation. I don’t think we’re better off as a country for it.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the decision came from ABC executives, not the White House:
“And I can assure you it did not come from the White House and there was no pressure given from the president of the United States.”
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The Biden-Harris administration has faced criticism for social media censorship, including efforts to flag posts for Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted to the House Judiciary Committee that the administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans ahead of the election.