What It Took for Republicans to Break with Trump

By Judson Berger

Friday, March 15, 2024

 

That House Republicans so overwhelmingly broke with Donald Trump this week to approve legislation requiring a Chinese company to divest from TikTok or face a U.S. ban says a great deal about the risk the U.S. government sees in the popular app.

 

Recall that Trump just completed his takeover of the RNC with a family member now at the helm, that his objections helped to derail a recent border and foreign-aid bill, and that the GOP establishment is more or less foursquare behind him in ’24 despite his role whipping up a mob that attacked Congress.

 

But on this, the committee vote was 50-0, and the floor vote was 352-65, with only 15 Republicans opposing. While Senate prospects are uncertain, as Rand Paul and others fight what they consider an overreach, for those wondering what it would take for GOP lawmakers to defy the former and possibly future president, the answer is: the national-security threat that currently resides on your kid’s phone.

 

From National Review’s editorial in support of the legislation:

 

The threat posed by TikTok that should matter most to Congress in considering this legislation doesn’t fundamentally have to do with its content or the behavior of its (overwhelmingly underaged) user base. Rather, it has everything to do with the fact that, aside from its social-media function, it is spyware — spyware owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

 

Law-enforcement and national-security officials have previously testified to these concerns. FBI director Christopher Wray did so again this past week under questioning from Senator Marco Rubio, who pressed the witness on to what extent the Chinese Communist Party can access TikTok data and influence what Americans see by way of parent company ByteDance.

 

Wray agreed that the CCP not only can do that but has the power to direct content that would foment discord in the U.S. “That’s my understanding,” he testified. “And I would just add that that kind of influence operation, or the different kinds of influence operations you’re describing, are extraordinarily difficult to detect, which is part of what makes the national-security concerns represented by TikTok so significant.” While TikTok says it would not hand over user data to Chinese officials, the speed and force with which the House was able to muscle this bill over to the Senate in a presidential-election year underscores the degree to which the lawmakers who get the briefings don’t believe that.

 

TikTok did itself no favors by unleashing hysterical hordes of teenagers on the congressional phone lines in an attempt to stall the action. From Noah Rothman:

 

Members of Congress reported receiving threatening calls from incensed TikTok fans, some of whom threatened to kill themselves if the proposed bill advanced out of committee. Some promised to mete out violence against sitting members of Congress. Many sounded as though they were in their preadolescence — indeed, the sound of school bells could be heard in the background as they sought to cajole their representatives.

 

The campaign was a disaster. It presented tangible evidence to lawmakers not only that TikTok’s capacity to track the data and locations of their users was quite robust but also that those users were in the throes of a deep dependency. The application’s users made the case against TikTok better than its detractors ever could.

 

Trump’s advocacy, meanwhile, was not exactly convincing, considering he previously pursued a ban as president and transparently admitted, in reversing course, that he wants TikTok around to keep Facebook in check, among other considerations. Ramesh Ponnuru writes here about what to make of congressional Republicans’ split with Trump and the capacity they just showed — at least on this issue — to “tune him out.” The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and TikTok, will have a second chance to exert their influence in the Senate, where Jeff Blehar says Chuck Schumer should quickly schedule a vote. Jeff, play us out:

 

There are no substantive arguments for opposing the House TikTok bill. The national-security threat TikTok poses is evident; the proposed legislative solution is effective, constitutional, and carefully circumscribed to prevent later abuse; and for once this bill has genuine bipartisan approval the likes of which cut across both party lines and even the factions within each party. (The 352–65 vote in the House today, with support ranging from hard-line MAGA conservatives to ultra-progressives, is evidence enough of that.) A lot of people with a lot of money invested in Chinese industry over the past few decades are now applying pressure on both sides of the Senate aisle to save the Chinese Communist Party’s most valuable data mine, as a way of saving their own skins. Don’t let them win. In a legislative era characterized by quasi-nihilistic futility, the chance has now presented itself for Washington’s lawmakers to actually — in the clearest and least arguable way seen in decades — serve their country.