By Variety | Created at 2024-11-18 02:03:30 | Updated at 2024-11-24 14:52:36
6 days ago
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Brendan Carr as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Carr is the senior Republican on the FCC, having served previously as the telecommunication agency’s general counsel. Trump first nominated Carr to the FCC in 2017.
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement on Sunday. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”
Carr, if confirmed, can assume control as FCC chairman once Trump enters office in January, as he’s already on the commission, according to Politico. Carr’s current term on the FCC runs through 2029.
“We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” Carr wrote on X Sunday following Trump’s announcement.
During the 2024 presidential race, Carr criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’s surprise Nov. 2 appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” claiming in a post on X that it was “a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule.”
Carr continued, “The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct – a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”
