‘It’s Not a Threat, That’s a Penalty’: Pro-Trump FCC Chair Raises Prospect of Pulling CBS’s Broadcast License

President Donald Trump’s handpicked head of the FCC, Brendan Carr, told CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Monday that pulling CBS’s broadcast license is a potential “penalty” – not just a “threat.”

“And over the years, the FCC has stepped back from enforcing that public interest obligation. I think the FCC should do what Congress wants us to do and enforce those laws. We’re going to see where this investigation goes,” Carr told Eisen.

Early in Trump’s second term, Carr reinstated FCC complaints made against CBS and NBC by Trump-back groups. The former FCC chair under President Joe Biden had dismissed those complaints, along with one against Fox News, arguing they would have a chilling effect on free speech. Carr did not also reinstate the complaint against Fox.

“So are you threatening to pull their license? Wouldn’t that be a pretty drastic step?” Eisen questioned.

“Well, it’s not a threat, that’s a penalty that is in the Communications Act, and if you don’t–” Carr replied as Eisen asked, “But when was the last time the FCC pulled a broadcast license?”

“Yeah, it’s been a long time, and I think that’s part of the issue. If you step back, you know, trust in the national mainstream media is at an absolute low right That’s not just my view. Jeff Bezos himself did an op-ed where he said that,” Carr replied, adding:

But what’s really interesting is that actually local stations, local TV stations, have a lot of trust. And so the agenda that I’m trying to run at the FCC is to empower those actual local television stations to serve the public interest. Because what we’ve seen is you’ve got national news media, ABC, NBC, CBS, and they’re exercising more and more control over those local TV stations. I don’t think that’s a good thing for the country, so we’re trying to reverse that.

The White House’s official rapid response team shared the clip approvingly on X soon after it aired.

Trump has explicitly called for the FCC to levy the “maximum fines and punishment” against CBS and 60 Minutes, in particular, after recent coverage he did not care for. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in mid-April:

Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Trump has also repeatedly called for CBS to lose its broadcast license, while also threatening other media outlets like ABC News and MSNBC. Trump is currently suing 60 Minutes for tens of billions of dollars.

Watch the clip above.