Sen. Ted Cruz

In a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed the Federal Communication Commission chair Brendan Carr, saying he sounded like a "mafia boss" after threatening to revoke ABC's licenses if they didn't fire late night host Jimmy Kimmel, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Cruz, who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FCC, did make sure to show his allegiance to both Trump and Carr, saying that he hated what Kimmel had to say about Trump's reaction to MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk's murder.

He also said that though he likes working with Carr, what the FCC chair did was "dangerous as hell."

On Friday, the Texas senator ranted on his podcast that, “If the government gets in the business of saying ‘We don’t like what you, the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives."

After playing a clip of Carr on conservative podcaster Benny Johnson's podcast on which he called for Kimmel's firing, Cruz said, "No. No. No. No. No. That’s right out of Goodfellas. That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’"

Despite saying he was "thrilled" that Kimmel is off the air, Cruz said what he fears most is the Democrats' retaliation to these threats.

"They will silence us. They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly, and that is dangerous,” he said.