Emanuel blasts Trump for 'flexibility' on TikTok position
Rahm Emanuel, President Biden’s ambassador to Japan, sharply criticized President-elect Trump for reversing his position on TikTok, saying the app still poses a danger to the American people so long as it remains under the control of a China-based company.
“Listen, as a former ballet dancer, I'm amazed at the flexibility of these individuals who just three years ago, four years ago, like President Trump, he announced TikTok was a danger to America. He gets a contribution from one of the American investors in TikTok and the parent company, all of the sudden, he sees the merit of TikTok here in the United States,” Emanuel, a longtime Democratic politician, said in a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Look, China is after Americans, gathering data, collecting data,” he continued. “There's a reason the United States is getting rid of Chinese-manufactured cranes at our ports: because it collects data. Why would you let American children be influenced by China and their data collected?”
Trump said Sunday he would issue an executive order to postpone the ban on TikTok and give its Chinese-based parent company ByteDance more time to divest from the platform, which the company was required to do by this weekend if it wanted to avoid a U.S. ban of the popular video-sharing app.
Amid concerns over ByteDance’s ties to China, Congress last spring passed the bipartisan legislation to ban the app, which also gave the president the authority to give a 90-day extension if progress was being made toward a divestiture.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote Sunday morning on Truth Social. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
Trump said the order will ensure companies that “helped TikTok from going dark" will not face liability.
During Trump’s first term, he tried to ban TikTok through an executive order, which was ultimately blocked in court. He reversed course as Congress was considering the divest-or-ban bill last year. Notably, the shift came after Trump met with Jeff Yass, a major GOP donor and investor in TikTok, although the incoming president said they did not discuss the app.
“Now I get that President Trump got a donation, but keep your hands off our children. It's that simple. It's either we protect our children, or we allow China to have access to their information, and a contribution from a donor, should not change your principles,” Emanuel said in the interview.
“In Washington, I've been there long enough, people are firm in their opinions. It's their principles that are flexible,” he said. “That's unacceptable.”
Read more at The Hill
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