Autry Pruitt (former Trump campaign surrogate) responds to Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air return by arguing the host’s reinstatement reflects ideology over merit. Pruitt notes Kimmel’s audience is comparatively small—“kids unboxing toys on YouTube” draw more views—and contends that if ratings truly drove decisions, outcomes would differ. He contrasts Kimmel with Howard Stern, saying Stern kept his job “because he drew an audience,” whereas Kimmel “keeps his job because of ideology, not performance.” As a counterexample to the “everyone’s down” defense, Pruitt cites Greg Gutfeld’s strong late-night ratings on Fox News.
Pruitt emphasizes that in the U.S., public airwaves are governed by ‘public interest,’ not absolute free speech, referencing the FCC framework dating to the 1930s. Within that context, he views current Republican moves as mirroring what Democratic administrations have previously done—using available levers of influence. Asked how far Donald Trump might go (e.g., threats to sue ABC), Pruitt answers: as far as prior Democratic presidents have gone.
On concerns about “people power” pressuring networks, Pruitt calls the reaction half-hearted, then pivots to claim that during the Biden administration, federal actors coordinated with social platforms to suppress conservative voices—citing monitoring of Facebook and Twitter, requests to remove users (e.g., conservative journalists), and a 2023 subcommittee report documenting such coordination. He reiterates that the airwaves standard remains one of public interest, and Trump is operating within a precedent set by others.
Regarding reports that the United Nations sabotaged an escalator and teleprompter to embarrass Trump, Pruitt allows it’s plausible a rogue individual interfered, but he does not believe there was a formal UN conspiracy. More broadly, he says rogue actors in bureaucracies and abroad have at times targeted Trump simply because they dislike him.
