Jake Tapper Tells Colbert: If We Can’t Criticize Our Leaders ‘We Are No Longer the USA’

David Gilmour Sep 19th, 2025, 9:20 am

CNN’s Jake Tapper warned Thursday night that if Americans lose the freedom to “mock” or “criticize” their leaders, then the country would be “no longer the United States of America.” Tapper offered the ominous warning as he slammed Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension as a “direct violation of the First Amendment.”

During a Thursday sit-down on , Tapper outlined the sequence of events that led to Kimmel’s ousting , highlighting remarks by Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr on a podcast on Wednesday. Tapper warned Carr was “telling companies what to do” and triggered a pile-on by affiliate conglomerates with merger ambitions.

Host Stephen Col

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