Former Vice President Mike Pence worries that a bipartisan effort to force the popular social media app TikTok to cut ties with China will fall victim to presidential politics ahead of November’s elections, which promise to be fiercely competitive.
“I am concerned that this vitally important national security measure could get caught up in delays in the United States Senate and ultimately get lost in the fog of presidential politics,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview, in reference to the upcoming November election which is expected to be a rematch between former President Trump and President Biden.
Pence’s organization, Advancing American Freedom, is leading a campaign to push a bill through Congress and onto Biden’s desk that would require TikTok to divest from Chinese company Bytedance or be banned in the U.S. Their effort includes a multimillion-dollar advertising buy. in Washington, D.C., and in several states, with the goal of pressuring Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other key senators to push the legislation to completion.
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Pence has sounded the alarm about TikTok’s national security threat. (Getty Images)
The $2 million ad began running in the nation’s capital on Sunday, and Pence told Fox News Digital that it would also run at a later date “in several states across the country,” including Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“We will not only ask people to call Schumer, but also the relevant Democratic senators in those states to urge them to also step forward to support the forced sale of TikTok and bring this matter to a vote.” and to the final step,” he stated.
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According to the former vice president and former 2024 presidential candidate, TikTok “represents a deep compromise of the privacy of millions of Americans and creates an opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party to collect data on tens of millions of Americans who could be exploited in the future.” “.
Schumer did not seek to fast-track the House-passed TikTok bill, instead sending it to Sen. Maria Cantwell, chairwoman of the Commerce Committee. (Getty Images)
Pence noted that it is “perhaps even more dangerous” that TikTok has been able to establish an “unprecedented propaganda platform for an adversary nation in the United States.”
Part of Pence’s concern about quick action on the bill stems from his own experience in Congress. “My concern, having spent 12 years in the House of Representatives, is that not much will get done after Memorial Day during a presidential election year.”
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But he explained that TikTok’s data collection and its connection to China present a threat too urgent to postpone.
The bill, introduced by House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 352-65.
Gallagher is the author of the bill. (Kent Nishimura for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Once it reached the Senate, it was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, rather than expedited consideration as some had hoped.
Pence said he discussed the bill and its path in the Senate with Gallagher, who he said had detailed that the staff of Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was open and constructive, despite potential concerns raised about his control over the fate of the bill. Pence claimed Gallagher told him Cantwell’s team was “engaging constructively.”
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Various reports of Politician revealed last month that several of Cantwell’s former staffers are now lobbying on TikTok’s behalf, raising questions about the senator’s role in overseeing the bill’s trajectory.
Pence is focused on pressuring the Senate to take up the TikTok bill. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
TikTok did not comment to Fox News Digital.
There is no clear timeline for legislation in the Senate, and many senators have warned that bills usually take longer in the body than in the House. However, some have questioned this, including Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., pointing to the House’s rapid passage of it and its implications for national security. “I wouldn’t accept the premise that there is a defect in a long process,” he recently told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., previously pointed the finger at outside lobbying efforts to stall the bill in the Senate. He claimed the bill being moved to committee was an attempt to “kill it.”
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“Just put a sign right there on the door that says ‘Ownership of Big Tech,'” he suggested at the time.
Cantwell has stated his intention to hold public hearings on the proposed bill, along with a markup. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ranking member of the Commerce Committee, telegraphed his approval of the possibility, as a frequent advocate, of returning to regular order in Congress.
