The FCC should have never gotten involved with the decision to pull "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" from ABC, North Carolina U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan (R) says.

TMZ caught up with Harrigan Friday, and while he's not opposed to Jimmy being indefinitely booted from the network ... he says how it happened is quite "troubling."

He tells us he thinks it's "troubling" what Jimmy said on-air following Charlie Kirk 's death, but it's not the government's job to censor him ... and it "should be a business decision and a business decision alone." Gallery Launch Gallery Getty

He underscores the bedrock importance of the U.S. Consititution's First Amendment, warning we must be "protective" of our freedom of speech and "vigilantly watchful of our freedoms" because, as our Founding Fathers said

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