Welcome to The Late Show. I’m your host, Stephen Colbert. But tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel. I still have a show though, right? Okay, good. Yesterday, after threats from Trump’s FCC chair, ABC yanked Kimmel off the air indefinitely. That is blatant censorship. And it always starts small. You know, remember like in week one of his presidency? Gulf of America. Call it Gulf of America. Sure, seems harmless, but with an autocrat, you cannot give an inch. And if ABC thinks… If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive. And clearly, they’ve never read the children’s book if you give a mouse a Kimmel.

And to Jimmy, and to Jimmy, just let me say, I stand with you and your staff 100 percent. And also, you couldn’t let me enjoy this for like one week. Just come on! All right, I got a question for y’all as we watch this. Honestly, I do not see the appeal. I have never seen the appeal of these late night shows. I know that they put up the laugh symbol whenever they say a joke that’s supposed to be funny. I don’t know why people… Why do they even have an audience whatsoever? I just don’t get it, bro.

I genuinely am trying to find the humor. And this ain’t even, you know, conservative Anton talking right now. This is just me as a fan of comedy and as a fan of good entertainment and television. I don’t see the appeal. How in the hell are these people able to even get an audience in the first place? Seriously, before we get into all of the censorship stuff and all of that stuff, how are they able to get an audience? I don’t get it. I genuinely don’t get it. Let’s see more. Maybe he got something else that we’re not aware of.

Maybe let’s see it. Now, just like ours, Jimmy’s monologue is about what everyone’s talking about every day. And on Monday, everyone was talking about reactions to the horrifying assassination of Charlie Kirk. And Jimmy touched on it in a way that offended FCC chair and individually wrapped hard-boiled egg that they sell at the airport, Brendan Carr. Carr went on a podcast yesterday afternoon and described Jimmy’s comments as the sickest conduct possible. Wow, those are strong words. I mean, Jimmy must have really been off the rails. I mean, completely out of control, truly psychotic.

Let’s see what he said. We had 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. In between the finger pointing, there was grieving. Is that the clip? Really? Because that’s just Jimmy Kimmel. I mean, given the FCC’s response, I was expecting something more provocative. That’s like hearing that Playboy has a racy new centerfold and finding out it’s just Jimmy Kimmel. I don’t see it. But Brendan Carr, he went even further, sending a clear signal to broadcasters what their next move should be and throwing in a little implied threat.

I think that it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, listen, we are going to pre-end. We are not going to run. You know what’s so funny, bro? None of these people stood up against censorship when Trump was permanently banned. Nobody. Nobody stood up for Trump when he was permanently banned. Everybody celebrated. Everybody said this is necessary. I can pull up NBC. I can pull up all of the reactions. I can pull up everybody. Literally. Nobody. Nobody tripped. Everybody was with it.

Newsweek, all of these different places, they all was cool with Trump being censored and banned and several other conservatives and several other people that was trying to ban him and hold him accountable. When Trump said, yo, I think that this is censorship and all of this stuff, you know what they did? Don Lemon, everybody. They celebrated. They celebrated it. Everybody celebrated it. Everybody was cool with it. From the president’s Twitter account and his waning days as commander in chief, Twitter run by CEO Jack Dorsey saying after close review of the president’s recent tweets, it banned him due to the risk of further incitement of violence.

Twitter specifically warning, quote, plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the U.S. Capitol and state Capitol buildings on January 17th. After the ban, the president tried to tweet from other campaign and staff accounts, triggering a game of whack-a-mole with Twitter quickly taking down his posts. Many platforms have banned or restricted the president’s account, including Facebook and Instagram, where he’s blocked indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks. It’s a sad day when big tech has more power than big government that they can censor the president over the United States.

Because Twitter is a private company, experts say the removal of the president for violating their rules is not a violation of the social media platform that can make their own rules. Whether it’s silencing him, of course it’s not. He could call a press conference. The ban, which many argue came too late, was also instigated in part by Twitter staffers. The ban which many says came too late. The ban which many says came too late. Trump and his family, including Deutsche Bank, which has been his biggest lender. New York City has also dumped Trump.

It’s severing all contracts with the Trump Organization, which operates a carousel and skating rinks in Central Park, as well as a golf course in the Bronx. The deals are worth about $17 million U.S. a year. Now social media sites have also distanced themselves from Trump in the wake of the Capitol Hill riots. Some of the biggest players, including Twitter and Facebook, but some are criticizing the crackdown by the tech giants calling it censorship and a violation of the First Amendment rights in the United States. For a closer look, we’re joined by Gene Polissinski with the Freedom Forum, who joins us from Indiana.

Thank you so much, sir, for joining us. This opens, of course, a big discussion over censorship, free speech, free expression here in Canada under Section 2 of the Charter of Rights. It’s been challenged in some cases. Trump, many of his supporters calling it censorship. Talk about the potential legal implications of these social media sites banning them. Good morning, Anthony. You know, by law, actually, the social media companies have every right to decide what they’re going to carry on their websites or their social media sites. They’re a private company. So back then, it was OK.

They’re a private company. It’s OK. You can do what you want to do. Right. Remember when it was OK? They’re a private company. It’s not a big deal. Listen, they should be able to do what they want to do with their platforms. I remember Don Lemon just four years ago was talking about how he was happy that the president was banned and that social media was cool for him to ban. People like you and the like carried his water and told lies, allowed the lies to spread. That’s why. Senator, nobody asked you to be the editor of the president’s Twitter feed, the one he has been permanently barred from, the one he is whining about, but they’ve taken away his freedom of speech.

The fact is, these are private companies. They have no obligation to have anyone on their platforms. These are decisions that have nothing to do with Congress, except perhaps for people trying to kill them. Think about it this way. If they’re going to espouse freedom of speech, right, being taken away, perhaps this will help you understand if you frame it in that manner, if you frame it in the freedom of religion argument that you use so much. Twitter and Amazon and the like, they are the Christian bakery. Okay. Trump is the gay couple who wants a gay wedding cake.

First amendment. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That’s what it says. It says nothing about Twitter or social media, the Congress. Don’t get it twisted. Stop using that argument. It makes no sense. So it was cool, right? Because I want to make sure, I want to make sure that we’re all on the same page. ABC and Disney are private companies, right? No.

No. They’re, bro, they are private companies and these are people that advocated for, celebrated and said, ah, hi, nanny boo boo over to Trump when he was removed from these platforms. Oh, there go my baby girl. What’s up, baby girl? Baby girl. What’s up, baby girl? What’s up, my pretty girl? Yes. What’s up, Megan? Y’all can catch me going after hours tonight. It’s going to be a great show. I promise you. But, um, they celebrated. Jimmy Kimmel did a whole montage on it. All of these people did a, did a phenomenal job celebrating Trump, baby girl.

Celebrating Trump, getting removed and banned and all of this stuff. And now, now that the Roosters have come home, they are sitting there complaining and saying, we are all Stephen Colbert. The only thing that I want the left to do is make a better argument. That’s all I’m saying. The only thing that I want them to do is to make a better argument. I just want them to not, to not use the talking point of, oh my God, this is censorship. Oh my God. This is so bad. Oh my God. I can’t believe it.

That’s all I want is for them to be consistent. If you’re going to use this as an opportunity to get rid of Donald Trump, which, and it wasn’t just Donald Trump. It was a whole bunch of people. Then we also have to make sure that we are consistent when it comes to private companies and entities, and they’re not even banned from social media. They can go on ex-formally known as Twitter. They can go on YouTube. Don Lemon did it right after they fired him. He started him a YouTube channel. Joy Reed did it.

She decided to go all in on YouTube. It’s a bad show. Her numbers is a little down. Thank you. See, even Eric. Eric objectively said the left did start this cancel culture. And so culture started on their side. Republicans said, okay, if it’s good for you, then it’s good for us. Right. And so now we are in a space where this is why, this is why I do not believe in censorship. I say it in my chat. I say it against people that I don’t necessarily care about. I’ll say it against people that I think is a straight up enemy.

But I say, you know what? I don’t believe in them dying. I don’t believe in them going to jail and I don’t believe in them not being able to feed their family. And I do not do not under any circumstances believe in censorship. I do not. And they say Anton, but they said this Anton, they said that I said, but it’s plenty of people that don’t necessarily care for what I say. And so I would not want somebody to try to stop me from what I’m saying. And so I don’t advocate for other people to be removed from their platforms.

I don’t advocate for people to be docs because I wouldn’t want it done to me, but see the left, they got this weird thing. They got this weird thing that they got going on. And this thing really is I’m gonna do it, but don’t do it to me. I’m a celebrate you losing your platform, but don’t, don’t do it to me. Why is it okay for y’all to celebrate and cheer and get people removed from platforms and then y’all all of a sudden feel like y’all getting censored? Y’all was removing people just based off of accusations.

Man, listen, the Me Too movement was diabolical. The Me Too movement was diabolical. It was people that was like, believe every single thing that a woman say, even after she’s proven to be a liar. Believe it all. Believe it all. Take him away from his job, remove his ability to be able to feed his family. They was kicking people off of platforms. They was kicking people out of their jobs. They was firing gas, firing men. Come on, man. And this is the game. This is the dangerous game that you play. When you jump out the window, sometimes the person may grab your arm on their way out and take you down with them.

They may, you might not realize, oh shoot, we tied together. See, that’s the beautiful thing about life is that it’s a ying and a yang. It’s a balance. So if you hit me, you suffer also. You just don’t know how yours is coming. It may not be immediate. It may not be the way that you think, but it may hit you harder. You may hurt harder because see, the thing about it is that Trump was resilient enough to find his way back into the White House and he like, all right, now what? Now what? And, and you know, the funny part about it is Jimmy Kimmel could have shut up.

He could have shut up. He could have shut up and got his money and got his $16 million a year and had no problem whatsoever. But no, he wanted to play the game. And so he played it and lost. That’s, that’s the thing about the game, right? You playing the game does not guarantee that you’re going to win. You playing the game gives you an opportunity to win. That’s what capitalism is. That’s what capitalism is. Everybody don’t get a participation trophy. Somebody going to be first place and the rest of y’all is going to be losers.

When you play the game, anybody that has ever played a video game, you know, that it’s a strong possibility that you may crap out. When you go to the casino, you play the game, you put your money on the table. It’s a strong possibility you can win and it’s a strong possibility you can lose and you choose to roll the dice. Own it. Own it. You winged it. You never had to say nothing about Charlie Kirk whatsoever. And now look at where you at. Now look at where you at. And shout out to my, um, my guy and I’ll tell y’all this too.

One thing about me is that I don’t switch up. Shout out to my dog Brian McKnight just hit me up and sent me a text. Yo, they say, and I heard that Anton is friends with Brian McKnight. Absolutely. I am. That’s my guy. That’s my guy. I don’t switch up just because you feeling some type of way about it. That’s my guy. That is my guy all day long. We talk all the time. That’s my guy. He needs something. I’m there for him. If I need something, he there for me. Shout out to my dog B McKnight.

Might have him singing my birthday. Yeah. Hymn anymore until you straighten this out. I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Classic good guy talk. Joanne, would you make me the happiest man in the world? Yep. Remember when they canceled Tucker Carlson and Tucker Carlson is still defending them too. Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The chairman of the federal communications commission who has the power over ABC’s broadcast licenses sounds like he’s telling them to punish Kimmel or else. It feels to me like shutting down this type of speech would represent a serious threat to our freedom.

It doesn’t matter what you feel like. And we all know that your show was going away also. So you don’t feel like you have anything to lose. I don’t even like these old people on these platforms anymore. I think that daytime is over. We need to go ahead and just go ahead and get some new blood in your. And you know who else thinks that Brendan Carr in 2020, when he tweeted from internet memes to late night comedians, political satire helps hold those in power accountable. Shutting down this type of political speech, especially at the urging of those targeted or threatened by its message would represent a serious threat to our freedoms.

Oh man, do not tell Brendan Carr that Brendan Carr said that or he’s going to get Brendan Carr to cancel Brendan Carr. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We get it. We get it. So the point is, is that it’s all hypocritical and all of them are acting like there’s something different than what it is. [tr:trw].

See more of The Millionaire Morning Show w/ Anton Daniels on their Public Channel and the MPN The Millionaire Morning Show w/ Anton Daniels channel.