{"id":2216726,"date":"2024-04-09T17:01:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T21:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-democrat-with-ties-to-chinese-owned-tiktok-pans-house-divestment-bill\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T17:02:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T21:02:22","slug":"senate-democrat-with-ties-to-chinese-owned-tiktok-pans-house-divestment-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-democrat-with-ties-to-chinese-owned-tiktok-pans-house-divestment-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Democrat Connected to Chinese-Owned TikTok Criticizes House Divestment Legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenate-democrat-with-ties-to-chinese-owned-tiktok-pans-house-divestment-bill%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2216726&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Senator Maria Cantwell, \u200dchair of the Senate Commerce Committee,\u2064 questions the legality of a House\u200b bill targeting TikTok&#8217;s Chinese\u2062 owners. She\u2063 believes\u200d the bill could \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-state-legislature-passes-fetal-heartbeat-abortion-bill\/\" title=\"Texas state legislature passes fetal heartbeat abortion bill\">face legal challenges<\/a> and may not \u200chold up\u2063 in court.\u2064 Cantwell&#8217;s ties to former aides working for TikTok have \u200draised concerns about potential conflicts of\u2063 interest. However,\u2062 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-repeals-travel-ban-to-states-with-anti-lgbt-laws\/\" title=\"California lifts travel ban on states with anti-LGBT laws.\">constitutional law firm<\/a> has affirmed the bill&#8217;s constitutionality.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>Maria Cantwell questions bill&#8217;s legality, contradicting report from constitutional law firm<\/h2>\n<figure><figcaption> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tSen. Maria Cantwell (Getty Images)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Sen. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.), the head of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee whose former senior aides work for TikTok, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ohio-ag-yost-havent-heard-a-whisper-about-alleged-10-year-old-seeking-abortion\/\" title=\"Ohio AG Yost: Haven\u2019t heard \u2018a whisper\u2019 about alleged 10-year-old seeking abortion\">throwing cold water<\/a> on the bipartisan House bill targeting the Chinese-owned app, saying she thinks it is likely to be struck down in court if it becomes law.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Cantwell told <a href=\"https:\/\/punchbowl.news\/article\/cantwell-tiktok-bill-guard-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reporters<\/a> Monday night that the bill requiring TikTok\u2019s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest from its American operations or face a ban, &#8220;could be better.&#8221; In particular, Cantwell said the House bill might not stand up to legal scrutiny if passed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But you also can\u2019t, as a Congress, just decide one day, \u2018Ah!\u2019 And pass a law. Well, you can, I just don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll hold up in court \u2026 Let\u2019s get something that can be upheld,&#8221; said Cantwell.<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell\u2019s criticism comes as senators express <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2024\/03\/15\/tiktok-ban-senate-slows-vote-bytedance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">concern<\/a> that her slow approach will give TikTok time to rally lawmakers against the bill. As chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Cantwell has jurisdiction over the bill, but her ties to the app have drawn scrutiny. In particular, several of Cantwell\u2019s former <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/democratic-critic-of-house-tiktok-bill-has-ties-to-app\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">senior aides<\/a> are now working for TikTok as it lobbies lawmakers to kill the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell&#8217;s former deputy chief of staff, Rosemary Gutierrez, is a lobbyist for TikTok through <a href=\"https:\/\/mehlmanconsulting.com\/team-member\/rosemary-gutierrez\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mehlman Consulting<\/a>, the firm she joined roughly one year after leaving Cantwell&#8217;s office in 2020. The Washington Democrat&#8217;s former chief of staff, Michael Meehan, left Cantwell&#8217;s office to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqcomms.com\/team\/michael-meehan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">launch<\/a> Squared Communications, a consulting firm that is working for TikTok. And Kim Lipsky, who worked as the Commerce Committee&#8217;s staff director under Cantwell, is on TikTok&#8217;s payroll as a government relations staffer. Last year, Lipsky <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/receipts\/individual-contributions\/?committee_id=C00349506&#038;contributor_employer=TIKTOK&#038;two_year_transaction_period=2024&#038;min_date=01%2F01%2F2023&#038;max_date=12%2F31%2F2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributed<\/a> $1,500 to Cantwell\u2019s reelection campaign, while TikTok\u2019s senior director of tech policy and senior counsel, Lisa Hayes, contributed $500.<\/p>\n<p>A constitutional law firm that analyzed the legislation disagrees with Cantwell\u2019s claim that the bill might not stand up to legal scrutiny. A <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JTLonsdale\/status\/1770517157731811564\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">memo<\/a> released by Cooper &#038; Kirk found that the divestment bill &#8220;is consistent with the United States Constitution.&#8221; The firm also found that the House bill &#8220;regulates conduct\u2014the foreign ownership of a covered platform\u2014not speech, so the First Amendment likely does not apply.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell also suggested that it should be up to the executive branch, not Congress, to determine what constitutes a threat that requires action, taking a swipe at House Republicans for being hesitant to give the executive branch more authority.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the House, in this world of Trumpisms and everything else, is worried about giving anybody [the White House, the Commerce Department] that authority.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said that lawmakers can make progress &#8220;on a path forward on TikTok legislation.&#8221; And on Monday, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/senate-republican-leader-backs-legislation-force-chinese-divestment-tiktok-2024-04-08\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">backed<\/a> the divestment bill, warning that Chinese ownership poses a serious national security threat.\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;America\u2019s greatest strategic rival is threatening our security right here on U.S. soil \u2026 in tens of millions of American homes. I\u2019m speaking, of course, about TikTok,&#8221; McConnell said. He added that &#8220;this is a matter that deserves Congress\u2019 urgent attention,&#8221; and that he\u2019ll &#8220;support common sense, bipartisan steps to take one of Beijing\u2019s favorite tools of coercion and espionage off the table.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell\u2019s skeptical <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/democrat-maria-cantwell-emerges-as-key-player-in-tiktok-fight-her-former-aides-are-working-for-the-company\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">approach<\/a> to the bill stands in sharp contrast to her colleagues\u2019 calls for action. As a bipartisan group of senators emerged from a classified briefing on TikTok last month, Republican and Democratic senators alike sounded the alarm about the threats posed by the social media app. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) called the app &#8220;a gun pointed at Americans\u2019 heads,&#8221; while Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) added that &#8220;there was deep concern about the threat of TikTok from both sides of the aisle,&#8221; and called on the Senate to &#8220;expeditiously&#8221; advance the legislation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senator Maria Cantwell, leading the Senate Commerce Committee, challenges the bill&#8217;s legality despite a constitutional law firm&#8217;s report. With ties to TikTok through former aides, Cantwell opposes the bipartisan House legislation aimed at the Chinese-owned app, expressing doubts about its viability<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2360,"featured_media":2216727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/senate-committee-on-commerce-science-and-transportation-scaled-e1710442306234.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2216726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/senate-committee-on-commerce-science-and-transportation-scaled-e1710442306234.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2216726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2216727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}