Ted Cruz called late-night television a propaganda machine for the Democratic Party. He responded to Jimmy Kimmel mocking his Cancun trip by digging up a 1996 clip of Kimmel in blackface and posting it, which is not normally how sitting senators respond to jokes about their vacation planning. Cruz and Kimmel are not, by any available measure, close.
Cruz has now co-sponsored a bill to protect Kimmel from government censorship. The official name is the Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act. Someone spent real time on that acronym. JAWBONE. They should not be publicly identified but they should be given a raise.
The bill would allow Americans to sue government officials who pressure private companies into suppressing lawful speech. It exists because the current administration reportedly pressured ABC and social media platforms to limit content it disliked, and Kimmel’s show was specifically targeted. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who has been a digital rights absolutist since before most of his constituents had smartphones, is the co-sponsor. His presence requires no explanation.
Cruz is harder to explain. He can genuinely believe the government cannot pressure broadcasters into silence and that the principle applies even when the protected speech is a monologue making fun of him, in which case this is rare and admirable. Or he has calculated that a JAWBONE precedent will one day protect a conservative outlet from a Democratic administration doing the same thing, in which case this is strategic and entirely consistent with his career. Both might be true. The bill is good law either way, which is what a good law looks like: structured so it works regardless of which party is in power.
Daily Kos described themselves as “not used to seeing Ted Cruz do things like this.” Neither, in all probability, is Ted Cruz.
When a senator who hates late-night television co-sponsors a bill named after the late-night host who mocks him most, what exactly did the mockery accomplish?
Sources
Daily Kos: Late Nighter Roundup June 18, 2026
Roll Call: Bipartisan bill targets government censorship threats
Reason: Bipartisan JAWBONE Act Targets Government Censorship Threats
ACLU: ACLU Endorses Bipartisan JAWBONE Act To Protect Free Speech
FIRE: FIRE endorses Senate bill that would prevent government coercion of protected speech
