My complaints about Biden and his mal-administration are well-documented in this forum and far too long to list in a single post, but this is another example of why the narcissist DJT, who’ll put his personal grudges and vanity over national security concerns, will never get my vote either. Nothing could possibly justify this (from Jim Geraghty):
It’s hard to think of any presidential election in American history in which we’ve had two worse, bottom-of-the-barrel candidates. Certainly there’s not one in this old’s lifetime.
Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 50 to 0 — rare complete bipartisan unity — to move on legislation that would ban TikTok from the U.S. if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it within six months.
Back at the end of July 2020, President Trump declared he intended to ban TikTok, recognizing the popular Chinese-owned app as a national-security threat. “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” he told reporters while aboard Air Force One.
Paul Nakasone, the general who until February served as director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, described TikTok as “a loaded gun at our nation’s head,” for reasons of cybersecurity and spyware, and as a tool of Chinese government propaganda. Nakasone was selected for NSA director by Trump, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate unanimously.TikTok is banned from all U.S. government devices.
But Trump just flip-flopped on TikTok, declaring his opposition to getting rid of it.
It’s possible this reflects the influence of billionaire hedge-fund manager and GOP megadonor Jeff Yass, whose fund has a $33 billion stake in ByteDance. But Trump’s publicly stated reason for supporting TikTok is the personal grudge he holds against Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook:
If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!
I’m sure Trump cultists will come up with some twisted rationale to justify this craven about-face. Just pathetic. It’s hard to think of any presidential election in American history in which we’ve had two worse, bottom-of-the-barrel candidates. Certainly there’s not one in this old’s lifetime.
