WASHINGTON (AP) — Anna Gomez wakes up every morning and checks her phone to see if President Donald Trump has fired her yet.
For now, she remains the sole Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, where she’s on an increasingly urgent mission to press media companies to more forcefully combat an administration she says is cracking down on free speech.
Her immediate focus is Disney, the parent of ABC. It is the subject of investigations launched by the FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump ally.
In an extraordinary four-page letter earlier this month to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, Gomez outlined what she described as the FCC’s “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” against the company. She noted probes touching on everything from diversity practices to ABC’s moderation of a 2024 presidential debate and the guests booked on “The View” along with the administration’s calls for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired.
She’s particularly worried that the FCC’s move for early reviews of ABC’s broadcast licenses in the markets where it owns local stations is an effort to intimidate the network. She called it “the most egregious assault on the First Amendment this FCC has taken to date.”
Her message was simple: Fight back. She argued that Disney’s controversial decision to pay a $15 million defamation settlement shortly before Trump returned to office did the company little good and set a bad precedent for the rest of the industry
“That settlement did not buy you peace,” she wrote in the letter, which she also posted to social media. “It only bought you time.”
D’Amaro hasn’t publicly responded to Gomez. But he has signaled a new approach in a filing this month, accusing the FCC of taking actions that could “chill critical protected speech.”
In an interview from her Washington office, Gomez said she was heartened by Disney’s response and encouraged other broadcasters to prepare for similar fights. She’s an exceedingly rare figure in the nation’s capital, one of just a few Democrats who have held onto their seats at federal agencies after Trump fired most of them in a bid to bend the bureaucracy to his will.
The Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of Trump’s moves and could issue a decision in the coming weeks.
While that plays out, Gomez’s term is slated to end June 30. But unless Trump fires her, she’s likely to remain at the agency, where her presence allows for a quorum that gives Carr the opportunity to keep enacting his agenda. Given the Senate’s narrow divide and dwindling calendar ahead of the midterms, it would be hard for Trump to muscle through a replacement.
