The Republican senator who oversees the US communications regulator has joined Democrats in criticising its chairman's recent threats against Disney and local broadcasters for airing Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Texas senator Ted Cruz, one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, said the threat by Federal Communications Commission boss Brendan Carr to fine broadcasters or pull their licences over the content of their shows was dangerous.

"I got to say that's right out of Goodfellas," Cruz said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie.

"That's right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, 'Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it'."

The senator's remarks are a rare example of a prominent member of President Donald Trump's own party publicly criticising th

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