At a Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana warned FCC general counsel Adam Candeub that the agency's growing scrutiny of broadcast network content risked breaching the First Amendment. The exchange highlighted mounting bipartisan unease over FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's series of investigations into networks, which critics, including ABC, say amount to regulatory retaliation for content unpopular with Donald Trump.

Candeub, whom Trump has nominated to lead the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, repeatedly declined to explain the legal basis for the FCC's actions, citing his role as counsel rather than policymaker. Kennedy pressed him on why the agency involves itself when a network criticises a politician, eventually telling him the FCC was "getting into the foothills of violating the First Amendment." Carr's FCC has probed matters including diversity practices, 60 Minutes' editing of a Kamala Harris interview, whether The View is bound by the Equal Time Rule, and ordered ABC to submit its eight broadcast licences for early renewal; Democratic commissioner Anna Gomez has accused Carr of using a vague "public interest" standard to punish disfavoured speech, while Democratic Senator Peter Welch also questioned Candeub over the 60 Minutes probe.