In August 2020, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order outlawing TikTok. Federal courts stopped it shortly after, and shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden rescinded the order, as the Conservative Brief reported.
Now, two prominent senators from the Democratic Party are acknowledging that Trump was right to warn that Tik Tok poses a serious threat to national security.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat, said TikTok was an "enormous threat" in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. He also acknowledged that Trump was "right" about the dangers the Chinese-owned social media platform poses.
Bream asked Warner what he was worried about in connection with TikTok and quoted his prior comments saying, "as painful as it is for me to say, if Donald Trump was right and we could've taken action then, that'd have been a heckuva lot easier than trying to take action in November of 2022."
"Did Washington simply not listen because they didn't like the messenger then and what can we do now?" asked Bream.
"Well, I think Donald Trump was right," Warner said. "I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat." Warner described TikTok as "a massive collector of information," including from children using the app.
"So if you're a parent and you got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned," he said. "All of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing."
Russian propaganda networks like Sputnik or RT would "pale in comparison" to TikTok as a "distribution mechanism," according to Warner.
Virginia Democrat Sen. Mark Warner on TikTok: "I think Donald Trump was right. TikTok is an enormous threat." pic.twitter.com/8g2fRwxrF7
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 20, 2022
Trump was right--and Intel Agencies were wrong about TikTok, ZTE, Huawei and about China, and much more:#TheGreatAmericaShow
Dem Sen. Warner says ‘Trump was right’ about banning China’s TikTok, warns parents against letting kids on app https://t.co/ayNfExbI9j #FoxNews— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) November 21, 2022
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat, acknowledged that Trump was correct about TikTok in 2020.
"I have been very opposed to TikTok, I was one of the first to expose the Chinese links. And I have urged that TikTok be closed down in America. There's a new proposal, Mnuchin and Meadows brought it up yesterday, to have Microsoft take it over," he said at the time. "There are some questions that have to be answered. How will the data be stored and secured? Do the Chinese — will still the Chinese have links into TikTok? So before I would be for such a merger, I'd have to get some answers to these questions."