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FIRST ON FOX – The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Wednesday launched a new digital ad campaign spotlighting what it calls President Donald Trump’s “ongoing attacks on free speech” following last week’s suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel from his late-night TV perch.
The spots, which will target a handful of House Republicans in swing districts who face challenging re-elections in next year’s midterms, will run on conservative and independent media, including the podcasts of media superstars Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro, who are very popular among younger and male audiences.
The campaign, shared first with Fox News Digital, comes in the wake of ABC’s move last week to pull Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air after his remarks about the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk sparked outrage and a veiled threat from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
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The suspension of Kimmel sparked outrage among Democrats and progressives, and even some high-profile conservatives, who said the late-night host was being punished for exercising freedom of speech. Many Republicans countered that Kimmel’s comments suggesting Kirk’s suspected killer was a MAGA member were outrageous and false.
ABC reinstated Kimmel on Monday and his program returned to air Tuesday night, although the roughly 60 affiliated stations owned by Nextar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group preempted the program.
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“The American people don’t support attacks on free speech, which is why Trump is losing support among independent and conservative voters,” the DNC argued in a statement. “The Republican base is fracturing, with Republican figures including Megyn Kelly, Ted Cruz, and Ben Shapiro loudly breaking with the administration.”
The DNC ad includes a clip of Trump, during the first week of his second administration, announcing that “on day one I signed an executive order to stop all government censorship.”
The narrator in the spot later charged that “Trump wants to control what you see so he can control what you think.”
The DNC says the campaign, which is backed by a modest five figures, will target the congressional districts of Republican Reps. Rob Wittman of Virginia, Jen Kiggans of Virginia, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey.
“It’s clear Donald Trump only cares about silencing his critics — and now, voters across the country and in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey are going to hear about it,” the DNC claimed.
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Trump and many of his top allies, long advocates of free speech, have criticized people who have been critical of Kirk since the conservative activist’s assassination earlier this month.
The president welcomed ABC’s decision to initially pull Kimmel off the air indefinitely. And Trump also suggested axing the broadcast licenses of networks who, in his opinion, treat him too negatively.
DNC Chair Ken Martin, in a statement to Fox News, said, “Donald Trump’s administration has amassed a chilling record of restricting speech, extorting private companies, and dropping the full weight of the government censorship hammer on Americans simply exercising their First Amendment rights. This is no exaggeration, and it’s splintering the coalition that got Trump elected.”
Martin claimed that Trump is “attempting to silence people. It’s un-American, and Democrats won’t stand for it.”
Republicans and conservatives,during the administrations of Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden railed against what they considered were efforts to muzzle free speech, attacking Democrats for pushing “cancel culture.”
Trump and his allies are now defending their latest actions by saying that “consequence culture” is replacing “cancel culture.”
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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