NORTH DAKOTA – While agreeing with ABC’s decision to suspend late night talk host Jimmy Kimmel over his controversial comments surrounding the death of Charlie Kirk, North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong doesn’t believe the government should be playing a role.
“I’m a free speech absolutist,” Armstrong told WDAY Radio’s The Jay Thomas Show on Monday.
“I think your community and your advertisers have every right to do all that, but I still think government should stay the hell off of it.”
The state’s Republican governor was asked for his real-time reaction to news that Kimmel’s show will be returning to the airwaves on Tuesday September 23rd.
Listen: North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong with WDAY Radio’s Jay Thomas
Armstrong did agree that the suspension had nothing to do with First Amendment rights, but added “decisions would have been made without FCC people engaging in it.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has been criticized for pushing the network into suspending Kimmel.
While acknowledging “you should get shunned if you say terrible stuff,” Armstrong cited his past experiences in Congress enduring the other side of the issue.
“I spent two years dealing with this during COVID, and Facebook and [Dr. Anthony] Fauci and the weird collaboration between big tech and big government trying to censor Midwestern values during the course of all of that stuff,” Armstrong said.
“I think if the business model means you get fired because you say stupid stuff that’s great [but] I don’t want the government telling people what they can and can’t say.”
