Former Trump White House Lawyer Sees Chilling Putin Parallel
Seems like everyone’s got an opinion about the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel by ABC following the comedian’s comments about the death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk. Which… given the FCC’s role in pressuring ABC and the First Amendment’s prohibition on exactly that, makes sense. There’s nothing quite like the decline of constitutional norms to get tongues a-waggin’! And former White House attorney — and current critic of Trump — Ty Cobb is no different. He told Kristen Welker of NBC News the purge we are seeing reminds Cobb of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s early moves to “systematically silence critical media outlets and independent TV channels” that were soon “bought out or shut down.”
And there are other disturbing historical parallels. “It’s evocative of what we’ve seen throughout history,” Cobb said. “In 1939, Dr. Goebbels, at Hitler’s instruction, removed five comedians, or witticists as they were called at the time, from the airways in Germany and for criticizing or making fun of the government in a satire way.”
Donald Trump has also targeted other late night comedians. Something Cobb said is sadly unsurprising. “Trump is waging war on people who offend him,” Cobb continued. “He’s all about vengeance. And sadly, his subordinates, like one of the Project 2025 authors, Brendan Carr of the FCC, are following in line.” Teeing up this dark joke, “Pretty soon, the only comedian left standing is going to be Karoline Leavitt.”
Watch the full interview below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
