Former Vice President Mike Pence says a bipartisan effort to force popular social media app TikTok to cut ties with China could cost him presidential politics ahead of what is expected to be a highly competitive November election. I’m concerned that this will happen.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, he referenced the upcoming November election, saying, “This vitally important national security measure is caught in delays in the U.S. Senate and ultimately lost in the fog of presidential politics. I’m worried that it might get lost,” he said. It is expected to be a rematch between former President Trump and President Biden.
Pence’s group Advancing American Freedom is leading a campaign to get a bill passed by Congress and sent to Biden’s desk that would require TikTok to leave Chinese-owned ByteDance or be banned from operating in the United States. Standing in the lead. His efforts include multi-million dollar ad buys in Washington, D.C. and several states to pressure Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.N.Y.) and other key senators. The aim was to ensure that the bill was enacted to the end.
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Pence warns of TikTok’s national security threat. (Getty Images)
The $2 million ad will begin running in the nation’s capital on Sunday, and will later run in “many states across the country,” including Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Pence told Fox News Digital. I previewed it.
“In addition to calling on people to call Mr. Schumer, we are also calling the relevant Democratic senators in these states to come forward in support of forcing the sale of TikTok and bringing this issue to the floor. “We’re going to encourage them to do that,” he said, “and the final stop.”
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The former vice president and 2024 presidential candidate said TikTok has “grossly violated the privacy of millions of Americans and exposed tens of millions of Americans that the Chinese Communist Party could exploit in the future.” This creates an opportunity to collect data on ”
Schumer did not seek to expedite the House-passed TikTok bill, instead sending Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Commerce Committee, to the bill. (Getty Images)
Pence said TikTok has been able to establish an “unprecedented propaganda platform for a hostile nation in the United States,” which is “perhaps even more dangerous.”
Part of Pence’s concerns about swift action on the bill stems from his own experience in Congress. “My concern, having served in the House for 12 years, is that in a presidential election year, a lot of things don’t get done after Memorial Day.”
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But he described TikTok’s data collection and ties to China as too immediate a threat to delay.
The bill was introduced by House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), and passed the House with a majority vote. Bipartisan vote 352-65.
Gallagher is the bill’s author. (The Washington Post’s Kent Nishimura, via Getty Images)
Once the bill reached the Senate, it was referred to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, rather than being rushed through the floor as some had hoped.
Pence said he spoke with Gallagher about the bill and how it would move forward in the Senate, and Gallagher said he had spoken to Gallagher before the Commerce Committee, despite raising potential concerns about his control over the bill’s fate. Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said her staff detailed that it was open and constructive. Pence claimed that Gallagher told him that Cantwell’s team was “working in a constructive manner.”
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Some reports from Politico reveals Last month, several of Cantwell’s former staffers lobbied on behalf of TikTok, raising questions about the senator’s role in overseeing the bill’s trajectory.
Pence is focused on pressuring the Senate to act on the TikTok bill. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
TikTok has not responded to Fox News Digital for comment.
There is no clear timeline for passage of the bill in the Senate. Many senators have warned Deliberations on bills often take longer in the main chamber than in the lower house. But some, including Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), disagree, pointing to the swift passage of the bill in the House and the implications for national security. “I don’t accept the premise that there is a default in a long process,” he recently told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) previously blamed outside lobbying for the bill’s stalling in the Senate. He claimed the bill referred to committee was an attempt to “kill the bill.”
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“Just put a sign right on the door that says ‘Property of Big Tech,'” he suggested at the time.
In addition to the price increases, Cantwell said he would hold public hearings on the proposed legislation. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), ranking member of the Commerce Committee and a frequent advocate of a return to normal order in Congress, cabled his approval of that possibility.
