Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has criticized former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over his acquisition of social media platform TikTok.
“If TikTok’s next owner is a MAGA Trump cronies backed by a Saudi sovereign wealth fund, I don’t see how America will be any safer.” Wyden told Semaphore. In an article published Tuesday.
“I am deeply concerned about the Chinese government’s access to Americans’ personal information,” Wyden continued. “But all the concerns being expressed about Chinese influence apply equally to the Saudi government that killed a Washington Post reporter after putting spyware on his wife’s cell phone.”
Mnuchin, who served as Trump’s Treasury secretary, bought TikTok last Thursday after the House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban the platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company pulls out of TikTok. He said he is forming a group to do so. that.
“I think the bill should pass, and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“This is a great business. We’re going to form a group to buy TikTok,” he added.
Multiple news outlets have reported that Mnuchin’s private equity fund, Liberty Strategic Capital, There are investors including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Secretary Mnuchin’s comments in favor of the TikTok ban clash with those of his former boss, former President Trump, who opposes the bill and claims to help Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“If you eliminate TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social earlier this month. “Facebook cheated in the last election and I don’t want them to do better. They are the true enemy of the people!”
The Hill reached out to Liberty Strategic Capital.
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