House Oversight Democrats, Carr Clash Over Trump's ABC License Revocation Comments

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel weighed in Thursday afternoon, opposing Trump’s license-revocation demands. The commission “does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” she said in letters to Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., responding to concerns they raised last week (see 2409130062). “Our job at the agency is to license broadcast stations in a manner consistent with the Constitution and the Communications Act of 1934 as well as the rules and policies we have adopted pursuant to these laws. There are no exceptions.”

Trump “wanted to blame ABC” for his “world-class dreadful, terrible and pathetic performance” in the debate against Harris by seeking revocation of the network’s licenses, following a pattern of similar calls against other media outlets for perceived slights, said House Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “If you were chair of the FCC” and Trump called on the commission to revoke a broadcaster's license “because he had a political problem with something they had done, what would your reaction be?”

Carr, the front-runner to take the FCC gavel if Trump wins the Nov. 5 election (see 2407120002), said he's “been repeatedly asked very similar versions of this question,” including during the Senate Commerce Committee's FCC confirmation hearings. “What I’ve said going all the way back to 2017, every single decision that I make on the FCC, we based on the FCC’s precedent, federal law and the First Amendment,” he said. Carr later gave a similar response to a follow-up question from Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

Khanna countered that Carr “didn’t answer [Raskin’s] simple question” about whether “in your role as an FCC commissioner, do you think [ABC’s debate performance] is grounds for revoking” its license. Carr’s response “would never fly in a debate,” Khanna said: “One thing that people respect about [Trump is] he says what he believes. You’re sitting here not giving us an opinion.” People “hate the obfuscation,” he said. “Just take a stand.”

“My position is clear,” Carr said. “What you’re raising are concerns about weaponization” of the licensing process. “I think it's important that we talk about that.” He cited 2021 reports that a group of Congressional Hispanic Caucus Democrats sought to pressure the FCC into blocking the sale of WSUA(AM) Miami over pro-conservative viewpoints directed at Florida’s Latino communities (see 2104200077).

Starlink 'Lawfare'

Carr invoked his past claims that the Biden administration has sought to weaponize its political disagreements with X owner and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, including the FCC’s decision to bar SpaceX from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (see 2312140048). “That’s concerning,” as are past instances in which congressional Democrats wrote "letters to cable companies asking them to drop Fox News,” Carr said. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also cited concerns about the FCC’s Starlink decision. Musk earlier Thursday called the FCC’s RDOF decision “lawfare.”

FCC spokesperson Jonathan Uriarte responded that any notion that the commission's "decisions are politically motivated and not fact-based is false. In this instance, the agency denied public funds to more than a dozen companies -- not just Starlink -- who did not meet the program requirements.” SpaceX refused to remove locations that weren’t unserved rural households for which it was seeking RDOF support, such as parking lots, Uriarte said: SpaceX’s proposal would have required subscribers to purchase an expensive dish to receive service, when no other services supported by the program had such high startup costs. He called it “intellectually dishonest” to say a directive from President Joe Biden prompted the FCC's decision.

Greene, House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and other Republicans echoed Carr in emphasizing misgivings about NTIA’s BEAD implementation. They repeatedly saddled Harris with perceived problems because Biden tasked her with shepherding the broadband portion of his infrastructure spending proposal through Congress in 2021 (see 2104290076). Other GOP leaders have made similar claims since mid-August (see 2408130061), including a Wednesday letter Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and eight other GOP members sent Harris blaming her for BEAD's “poor management.”

Greene wondered how Harris, who “is telling the country ... she wants to be president,” can ask for that “job if she has not been able to deliver what the president assigned her to do” on broadband funding. Carr responded that BEAD hasn't connected anyone to broadband “because the administration, under [Harris’] leadership, has prioritized a progressive wish list of issues,” including a requirement that program funding recipients offer subscribers a low-cost connectivity option.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, countered that other rural broadband programs the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funded are moving forward and suggested Carr’s testimony was misleading. “I don’t want the American people to be confused,” she said: “It almost seemed” as if Carr were claiming “nothing had been done.” Carr responded that “not a single person has been connected” via funding from BEAD, which he called IIJA’s “signature” broadband program.