SILENCED: The ABC television network pulled late night host Jimmy Kimmel from the air after the chair of the Federal Communications Commission said he might take action over what Kimmel said about the murder of right wing activist Charlie Kirk.

  Kimmel said on Monday night that, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

  FCC Chair Brendan Carr said on a right wing podcast interview that Kimmel’s remarks about suspect Tyler Robinson were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people” and said his agency was “going to have remedies that we can look at.”

  Trump crowed on his Truth Social account, “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED.”

  Pressure had also come from the company Nexstar, an owner of ABC affiliate stations around the country, which has a $6.2 billion merger pending before the FCC.

  Speech is protected by the First Amendment but not necessarily by the Federal Communications Commission, which governs America’s licensed airwaves. Legacy broadcasters, like ABC and its parent company Disney, speak through affiliates licensed by the FCC.

  President Trump, who previously sued ABC/Disney and secured a $15 million settlement for remarks by news host George Stephanopoulos, appointed Carr to FCC chair this year. Trump is on a campaign to squelch news and commentary he doesn’t like, having sued so far ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the Des Moines Register for many billions of dollars.

Econ 101: The federal reserve yesterday dropped interest rates by a quarter point, its first cut since last December with President Trump’s latest appointment to the board voting for an even deeper cut. 

  The Fed had been avoiding rate cuts to keep inflation in check, but now with inflation ticking up the central bank is also fighting dwindling employment.

  Expectations are that there may be two more rate cuts this year, but the Fed board is divided, with some members wanting fewer cuts. Trump’s latest appointee Stephen Miran, on the other hand, voted for a half point cut which is usually reserved for more emergent circumstances.

JUST A PINCH: Former Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Monarez testified before Congress yesterday that Health Secretary Robert Kennedy ordered her to fire scientists who did not agree with his doubts about vaccines until she finally found scientists who would.

  She testified that he had also instructed her not to speak with career scientists at the agency, only Kennedy’s political appointees. She also said she was instructed by Kennedy not to speak to US Senators.

  The former chief medical officer, Dr. Deb Houry, who resigned when Monarez was fired, said there are no scientists left in senior CDC positions, just Kennedy’s political appointees. 

  Monarez said she lost her job for “holding the line on scientific integrity” after refusing Kennedy’s demands to fire top CDC vaccine officials who disagreed with his vaccine beliefs and accept without question the recommendation of the newly reconstituted immunization advisory committee. 

  Kennedy has said he’s trying to restore trust in the CDC, but he’s been instrumental in undermining that confidence.

    In one testy exchange Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, said Monarez was lying about her conversation with Kennedy about whether she could be trusted because there was a recording of the meeting.

   Kennedy’s version is that, “I asked her if she was a trustworthy person and she said ‘no.’”

  Monarez repeatedly said yesterday that Kennedy told her he could not trust her and that she shot back that “if he could not trust me, he could fire me.”

  When Mullin left the hearing he admitted to a reporter that there was no recording of that exchange.

THE ROYAL WELCOME: President Trump meets today with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

  King Charles who has a chest full of medals, ate dinner at Windsor Castle last night with Donald Trump, who has none. But the Brits treated Trump to a grand military parade earlier in the day, the kind of parade he only wishes the Pentagon could have staged in Washington. About 1500 military personnel and cavalry in grand traditional uniforms passed in review for the president. King Charlie knows how to flatter Trump.

  In the streets of London, out of view of the President, protesters marched in the street objecting to Trump’s deportation policies and his association with Tesla billionaire Elon Musk. 

THE REGIME: 

— President Trump declared on his social media that, “I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”  ANTIFA, which stand for “anti-fascist” is a philosophy, not a centralized organization.

— President Trump revealed that US forces have actually destroyed three suspected drug boats … not the previously reported two … in international waters in the Caribbean.

THE SPIN RACK: Three police officers were killed yesterday and two wounded while trying to serve a warrant involving a domestic situation in a rural part of York County, Pennsylvania. The shooter, who was lying in wait in a cornfield, was killed by return fire. —  Students at Utah Valley University returned to class yesterday for the first time since the assassination of right wing activist Charlie Kirk on campus last week. — Jerry Greenfield, a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, resigned from the company because the company’s independence and social activism has been lost under the corporate ownership of Unilever, which bought Ben & Jerry’s in 2000.  

BELOW THE FOLD:  Britain’s princess Kate, First Lady Melania Trump, and Queen Camilla all wore hats yesterday. Like her inauguration hat, Melania’s hid her eyes. The best thing about Camilla’s giant blue flying saucer hat is that it will likely never again be seen in public.

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