Ocasio-Cortez’s Old Remarks Come Back To Bite Her In Wake Of Kimmel Suspension

Have the conservatives celebrating Jimmy Kimmel’s cancellation considered that, if lefties regain power, they might be able to cancel conservatives?

Oh, wait. That sounds familiar. 

“Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News,” Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gloated in a selfie video, posted after Carlson’s departure from the network in April 2023. “Couldn’t have happened to a better guy.”

“What I will say though, is, while I’m very glad that the person that is arguably responsible for … driving some of the most amounts of death threats and violent threats not just to my office, but to plenty of people across the country, I also kind of feel like I’m, like, waiting for the cutscene at the end of a marvel movie, after all the credits have rolled, and then you see, like, the villain’s, like, hand reemerge out to grip over, like, the end of a building or something. But, deplatforming works, and it is important, and there you go, good things can happen.” 

🚨 NEW: Conservatives are thanking Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for helping oust Jimmy Kimmel, who said on Tucker Carlson when he got canceled – “Deplatforming works and it is important. Good things can happen.”pic.twitter.com/NF3TVOlaxA

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 18, 2025

At least she’s not totally lacking in self-awareness. Only mostly. Ocasio-Cortez has been ringing the “deplatforming” bell for years, in keeping with pretty much every prominent democrat. 

“I genuinely want to know why Tucker Carlson is allowed/paid to engage in clear, targeted, libelous harassment that endangers people & drives so many violent threats that ppl have to fundraise for their own safety,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in Feb. 2022. 

“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television, like Fox News, these are subject to, to federal law, federal regulation, in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t,” Ocasio-Cortez told former White House press secretary Jen Psaki in 2023.

“And, when you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very, clearly incitement of violence, very clearly incitement of violence, and that is the line that I think we have to be willing to contend with.” 

https://t.co/wexRLqJLQn pic.twitter.com/KmOfmkdUNL

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 18, 2025

Ocasio-Cortez has yet to single out an MSNBC or CNN host for inciting Charlie Kirk’s assassination. She encouraged “our leaders to lower the temperature.” 

ABC delivered. Albeit, following pressuring from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (RELATED: ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Off Air Over Charlie Kirk Comments)

“Jimmel Kimmel Live” is off-air “indefinitely,” after his Monday monologue smeared the “MAGA gang” for “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.” 

Determining the politics of the accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, are obviously relevant to determining a motive. No one has to “desperately” try to characterize Robinson as radically left-wing. The available evidence — writing on bullet casings, his own mother’s words, his alleged text messages — demands that conclusion. 

Ocasio-Cortez has yet to chime in on the Kimmel news. Plenty of others have in her stead. 

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes characterized the episode as the “latest chapter in Donald Trump’s ongoing campaign to crack down on free speech, dominate the media, and essentially render the First Amendment meaningless.” 

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Kimmel getting fired: This renders the First Amendment meaningless.

Chris Hayes on Tucker getting fired: He believed he could say anything no matter how disgusting and get away with it. Over time, that’s not going to work out well for you. pic.twitter.com/KOdROGvseE

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 18, 2025

Hayes was slightly more nonplussed about Carlson’s exit from Fox: “[Carlson] believed he could say anything, no matter how vile, no matter how disgusting, no matter how offensive, dehumanizing, or belittling. And if you act like a sociopath, over and over and over and over, you will become unpopular on the national stage.” 

After President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter in January 2021, journalist Matthew Yglesias observed, “It’s kind of weird that deplatforming Trump just like completely worked with no visible downside whatsoever.” 

Whoops.

Nieman Journalism Lab, too, claimed “deplatforming works” based on “new data on Trump tweets” in June 2021. Rolling Stone published commentary explaining “Why Cancel Culture Is Good For Democracy” in February 2023. 

The invisible footnote appended to all praise for deplatforming, or cancel culture, reads: “When we do it.”

Some right-wing figures have been effectively marginalized by “deplatforming.” Platforms like Gab, Parler, and Rumble hardly have the same reach as X, YouTube, and cable television. (RELATED: ‘Something Has Gone Seriously Awry’: FCC Chair Says Late-Night Hosts Are Now ‘Court Clerics’)

But “deplatforming” creates spectacle. Young people tend to react against public, aggressive censorship. Gen Z’s rightward shift is probably more attributable to “disgust for the left” than “admiration for the right.” 

It’s why calls to crack down on “hate speech,” as Attorney General Pam Bondi trumpeted in a recent interview, are met with near-universal disdain from the right. Kimmel’s failing was not being hateful. It was saying stupid things that might get his network sued to oblivion. 

Today is better than my birthday. https://t.co/sEpq3NRmqz

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) September 18, 2025

As a comedian, Kimmel is unforgivably tedious. As a reporter, he’s worth nothing at all. Kimmel is one of a legion of late night propagandists who blunt their talking points with canned laughter. 

I’ll end with some thoughts from perhaps the greatest late-night talk show host of all time.

“Why do they think that just because you have a ‘Tonight Show’ that you must deal in serious issues?” Johnny Carson questioned. “It’s a danger. It’s a real danger. Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import. And you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as a forum. You could sway people. And I don’t think you should as an entertainer.” 

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC