Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Johnson accuses CBS of 'selectively editing' his interview, new blow amid '60 Minutes' controversy

"CBS has been under fire for selectively editing their interviews to PROMOTE Democrats and UNDERMINE Republicans," Johnson posted to X on Monday. "Yesterday, they chose to cut FIVE important minutes out of my nearly 15 minute interview. You can be the judge as to why."

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday accused CBS News of cutting critical parts of his answers during a Sunday appearance on "Face the Nation," as part of an effort to "undermine Republicans." 

The criticism comes after multiple Republican politicians urged the network to release the full unedited transcripts of Vice President Kamala Harris's appearance on "60 Minutes" last week, after the vice president's answer in a clip promoting the interview differed from the answer in the full interview that aired.

News networks often trim interviews for timing purposes, but those edits do not usually include nixing important context or rearranging answers.

Johnson claimed that the network "selectively edited" portions of his responses related to the federal response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, the SAVE Act, and Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin's efforts to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. 

"CBS has been under fire for selectively editing their interviews to PROMOTE Democrats and UNDERMINE Republicans," Johnson posted to X on Monday. "Yesterday, they chose to cut FIVE important minutes out of my nearly 15 minute interview. You can be the judge as to why."

He then shared multiple clips that his office appeared to film alongside CBS's recording, which showed the full responses to the interviewer's questions. The first was related to Hurricane Helene, which he accused the network of editing out his first-hand account of talking to voters who claimed that the Biden-Harris administration had not given them the resources they needed.

"So they've obligated some funds, but they've only distributed two percent," Johnson said in the answer that aired on CBS. "The rescue and recovery effort is still going on, and then we address the rest of it" 

But Johnson's more thorough response was: "So they’ve obligated some funds, but they’ve only distributed two percent. When I was there on the ground, and you should go, I mean bring the cameras and talk to the people there, they’ll tell you. Don’t take a politician’s word for this, or the administration’s word for this, talk to people there on the ground. They had not been provided the resources, almost two weeks after the storm, that they desperately needed. 

"And when I was there, 13 days post the storm hitting that state, people are still being rescued," he continued. "They are stuck in the higher elevations and the mountains because the roads are down… they need every available resource and all hands on deck. The rescue and recovery effort is still going on, and then we address the rest of it."

In the second, he highlighted the administration's response to Youngkin's removal of noncitizens from voter rolls. 

"Here’s the problem, there is a number of states that are not requiring proof of citizenship when illegals or non-citizens register to vote. We know that’s happening," the speaker said in the full clip. "Look, Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, I was going to say, he issued an executive order to clean up the voting rules heading into the election. 

"Less than 30 days out, a couple of days ago, the ... Biden administration's Department of Justice… sued the governor and the commonwealth of Virginia to try to prevent them from cleaning up their voter rolls," he continued. "See, that kind of thing creates a lot of doubt and concerns in the minds of the American people. Why would they do that? We want, everybody should want the law to be followed."

Johnson accused CBS in the final clip of focusing on his response regarding the 2020 election, instead of the Biden administration's border policies that prompted the House to pass the SAVE Act. 

The network was once home to giants in journalism, including Walter Cronkite, Edward Murrow, and Mike Wallace. But recent scandals have marred CBS's good name, including the Harris debacle, the network's claim its moderators would not fact-check the vice presidential candidates during its debate and then pushing back on Ohio Sen. JD Vance's answers, and the leak of a memo from its director of standards and practices, who reportedly told reporters not to refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel.

https://americasvoice.news/justthenews/mike-johnson-accuses-cbs-undermining-republicans-selectively-editing-his/

Don Lemon Compares Evangelicals to Slave Owners

Don Lemon returned to CNN on Tuesday to promote his new book, I Once Was Lost, but despite the obvious allusion to “Amazing Grace,” Lemon insisted on Inside Politics that today’s white Evangelicals are no different than the slave owners of previous eras who twisted the Bible for their own purposes.

What made Lemon’s comparison even more outrageous is that he and host Dana Bash were discussing why Donald Trump is appealing to black men with ads about Kamala Harris being in favor of taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries for prisoners. As Bash switched topics to the book, Lemon added, “The black community is also very conservative, especially when it comes to LGBTQ issues.”

 

Bash proceeded to read from the book, “So, you just lead right into the first quote I want to use from your book, I One Was Lost, which is just a terrific book. You write, ‘As a gay black boy in the Deep South attending Baptist churches and Catholic school, I heard homosexuality defined as an ‘abomination’... I prayed as hard as a child could pray: Please, Lord, make me not be gay.’ That's tough.”

She then urged him to “connect what you just said before to this.”












Bash proceeded to read from the book, “So, you just lead right into the first quote I want to use from your book, I One Was Lost, which is just a terrific book. You write, ‘As a gay black boy in the Deep South attending Baptist churches and Catholic school, I heard homosexuality defined as an ‘abomination’... I prayed as hard as a child could pray: Please, Lord, make me not be gay.’ That's tough.”

She then urged him to “connect what you just said before to this.”

Lemon claimed, “It's tough because people automatically think that African Americans are liberal, right? And many times they can be socially conservative, right? And accepting in ways that are not seen in public.”

He continued:

I think that it's tough because, and it's not just the African-American community, because you can have in the larger culture, white folks, you know, denigrate LGBTQ community, but as a child growing up because of how people and especially Evangelicals, which is why I wrote the book, how they take scripture and the Bible out of context and they interpret that scripture in ways that they want to, they used the same scripture to subjugate women. They used the same scripture to enslave people of color, and so, then they use the same scripture to denigrate the LGBTQ community, to denigrate gay people, and so growing up, it was tough.

Lemon acknowledged that conservative sexual ethics are prevalent in Catholicism and African American circles as well, but the fact that such a consensus exists doesn’t matter to him. Only the ability to attack Evangelical conservatives matters.

As it was, Lemon added, “So, I thought having a belief in God, especially when I was going to be born again, right, from being baptized, that I could pray it away. It was magical thinking. And then the older you get and you start to think critically and you start to realize around the time Santa Claus and the whole realization, I won't say here, because people may be watching, then you realize that that's actually not what faith in God’s all about.”

What is faith in God really about? Lemon didn’t say, but to any kids out there who happened to stumble across the noon hour of CNN, ignore Don Lemon and rest assured that Santa Claus is real.

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/10/15/don-lemon-compares-evangelicals-slave-owners



Harris campaign tries to misrepresent Trump’s dancing town hall and gets debunked by ABC News

Terry Moran said it was not out of the ordinary and even called the event 'intimate.'


The Harris-Walz campaign tried to disingenuously criticize former President Donald Trump for changing the tone of his town hall rally in Pennsylvania, but a report from ABC News debunked the lie.

Trump meant to take questions from the audience on Monday at the event in Oaks, a suburb of Philadelphia. After multiple members of the audience suffered medical incidents, the former president decided to change the format of the event.

'While in certain quarters of social media people had a field day ... it did not seem out of the ordinary. It seemed almost intimate.'

"Let's not do any more questions. Let's just listen to music. Let's make it into a music fest. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right? Isn't that beautiful?" he said from the stage.

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In post on social media, the Harris-Walz campaign made it sound as if the incident showed Trump in a bad light.

"Tonight, Donald Trump ... acted confused when asked if they should end the event and play a walk off song," the campaign wrote, adding that he "stood frozen and silent on stage as music played for 30+ minutes and the crowd poured out of the venue."

That characterization of the incident was contradicted by a report from Terry Moran of ABC News.

"It turned into something else, when the candidate turned into a deejay!" Moran said. "The [medical] incidents shifted the mood, prompting Trump to cut the questions short and instead play some of his favorite music."

Moran went on to specifically reject mischaracterizations of the incident on social media.

"While in certain quarters of social media people had a field day with that, and I guess on the screens it might have looked quite strange, inside that hall, however, people were having a good time. What can I tell you? It did not seem out of the ordinary. It seemed almost intimate," he explained.

"He came down off the stage and mingled with his supporters," Moran said of Trump. "He was signing autographs and shaking hands and the like.”

The Trump campaign offered additional clarification about the medical incidents.

"The safety and well-being of President Trump's supporters is always his top priority," spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told ABC News. "The two individuals who fainted were immediately given medical attention. As President Trump said tonight, they are great patriots."

Pennsylvania is a critical battleground state in the election.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/kamala-harris-townhall-debunked-trump

WARNING: “Put People In Camps” (Something Just Changed)

In a sign that things are deteriorating rapidly within the Kamala-Walz campaign as their prospects for winning the 2024 election evaporate, desperation is proving to be the hallmark of the day.

Kamala Harris is flat out claiming that President Trump is going to round people up who disagree with him — those who “won’t support him” or “bend to his will” —  and put them in camps.

On the heels of multiple assassination attempts against President Trump (so many that I can’t keep track!), you would think that sort of rhetoric wouldn’t be tolerated anymore.  But as I said, desperation is the reigning emotion in the Kamala camp (pun completely intended), and that makes the democrats reckless, and dangerous.

Here’s the clip of Kamala resurrecting the Hitler-like claims while talking to a crowd in Pennsylvania.

That wasn’t the tone she was hitting just a few days before.  And for someone who is ridiculously rehearsed in her speeches (they are complete carbon copies, including facial expressions, hand gestures, and the occasional exotic accent thrown in), it is odd for her to suddenly change things up.

But that is what just happened.  Kamala Harris just added to her super-rehearsed speech, almost overnight.  That may be a scary sign.  Something has changed.  Here’s Fox News with a report on the shift in language coming out of the Kamala camp and the democratic party in general.Democrats on television have continued their heated rhetoric against former President Donald Trump despite multiple attempts on his life, and pundits twice compared him to murderous dictator Adolf Hitler in the last week.

In an interview on “CNN News Central,” Democratic strategist Aisha Mills was asked to respond to a comment made earlier in the day by Trump, who remarked that the U.S. has “a lot of bad genes in our country right now” during a discussion about illegal immigrants who were committing murders.

Mills began by claiming that Trump “revered the Nazis… revered Hitler.”

“Donald Trump has had a very sinister philosophy, wanting to be a dictator, absolutely dividing people up based on who they are, based on factors about them that have to do with their race and their gender, etc.,” she continued.

“And when he uses language like this, I don’t think that it’s a Freudian slip. I think that the danger of a Donald Trump is that he would absolutely try to exterminate an entire group of people because he thinks that their genes are somehow different than his and faulty,” Mills said. “And I say this with all the sternness that you hear in my voice because it is serious. And Americans should recognize that.”

On Sunday, prominent Democratic strategist James Carville compared Trump’s plans to hold a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City to a Nazi sympathizer who held a rally there almost 100 years ago.

That’s a lot of Nazi and Hitler comparisons to suddenly be thrown back into the mix of rhetoric and impassioned campaign speeches.  It’s too much to disregard as simply coincidental coordination.  Not… that was old fashioned coordination — the kind that has nothing “coincidental” about it.

Part of me wants to focus on the hypocrisy of the MISINFORMATION aspect to what she is doing.  For someone who has made it her mission in life to control other people through the fallacy that she has cornered the market on what is and what is not misinformation — she certainly indulges in it’s abuse as easily as… you might say, a tyrant?  (Oh, yes… I will go there.)

But again, my biggest concern is not “that” she is saying this; as bad as that is.  But what really raises my red flags is the fact that this was not being said, and now suddenly it is, again.

The extreme nature of these completely unfounded, even slanderous accusations is hard to cover up — even CNN’s story on the event could not hide how extreme the accusations are.

The vice president warned Monday that the ex-president was “unstable,” “unhinged” and out for “unchecked power” as she sent a jolt of urgency though her campaign with 21 days to go.

“Watch his rallies. Listen to his words. He tells us who he is, and he tells us what he would do if he is elected president,” Harris told a large crowd in Pennsylvania after a weekend when Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric reached chilling new levels and hinted at the extreme nature of his potential second term.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, meanwhile, went even further, suggesting the ex-president’s musings about using the military against domestic foes he branded “the enemy from within” could even amount to treason.

In a new section of her stump speech, Harris played a tape for her rowdy crowd in Erie featuring Trump’s comment on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he could turn the National Guard or regular military on “the enemy from within.”

“You heard his words,” Harris said. “He’s talking about the enemy within Pennsylvania … he considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country.” The vice president added: “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged, and he is out for unchecked power.”

Just before Harris spoke, her running mate unveiled the Democratic ticket’s most explicit assessment yet of Trump’s potential threat to basic political freedoms if he wins a second term. Walz, the Minnesota governor, said the idea a president could use troops against Americans made him “sick to my stomach.”

And the Army National Guard veteran highlighted a comment by the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley that Trump was a “fascist to his core,” which was reported in Bob Woodward’s new book “War.” Walz added: “Let that sink in, and don’t be a damn bit afraid of saying it, because that’s exactly who he is. That’s exactly who he is.”

I’m afraid what is happening is a preparing of the soil.  I’m concerned that we are seeing a projection of what a Kamala-Walz and the democratic party intends to do under the pressure they now find themselves; panicked, desperate, and dangerous.

I hear these accusations, and I hear the planting of seeds to accept their resistance to a second Presidential term for Trump when he WINS AGAIN.  And it scares me to death.  Because I believe they are desperate enough, and dangerous enough, to go all-in on whatever they apparently are angling towards.

Be sure you know what President Trump really said, because this focused narrative they are pushing is going to create an entirely new wave of fear-based concerns from people you know, or rub elbows with on a daily basis.  Arm yourself with the truth!

Here is the full text of Kyle Becker’s post above.  We need to understand, each one of us, exactly what this angle of attack looks like.  And for the good of our country, we need to be prepared to push back against the untruths (actual misinformation) and twisting of the truth that the democrats have suddenly taken to new levels — even for them!

The Enemies Within Hoax: Democrats Cherry Pick Soundbites to Frame Dangerous Narrative

Both Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the past 48 hours have attacked Donald Trump over the former president allegedly wanting to sick the military on his political enemies and put radical leftists in camps.

This is yet another blatant hoax. And it is a particularly dangerous one to spread against a former president who has already faced two assassination attempts, based in part on lies he is a “threat to democracy.”

The hoax relies in part on dropped context for the key quote and the target audience being unlikely to navigate shifting contexts to a separate but related quote.

Walz recently said on the campaign trail that Trump wants to “use the U.S. Army against people who disagree with him.”

“Just so you’re clear about that, that’s you. That’s what he’s talking about. This is not a mythical thing.” It is a “mythical thing.”

It is a mythical thing, as will be shown.

Kamala Harris fared no better. She ramped up the hyperbolic rhetoric to an eleven while on the campaign trail.

“You heard his words, coming from him. He’s talking about the enemy within … he’s talking about that he considers anyone that doesn’t support him, or who will not bend to his will, an enemy of our country,” she said.

She added, “He’s saying he would use the military to go after them … and we know who he would target, because he has attacked them before: Journalists whose stories who he doesn’t like, election officials who refuse to cheat by finding extra votes for him, judges who insist on following the law instead of bending to his will. This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous.”

As reported by CNN, Harris’ campaign will release a new ad, dubbed “Enemy Within,” featuring Trump saying the phrase “the enemy from within” on the campaign trail.

But this is yet another big lie that drops critical context.

In Donald Trump’s interview with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures, the former president gave multiple soundbites on “the enemies within.”

In one clip, Trump talks in general about radical Democrats like Adam Schiff, who spread a debunked Russia hoax about the president that damaged the country. In another clip, Trump talks about radical agitators in the context of election security.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people who have come in, destroying our country — and by the way, totally destroying our country, the towns, the villages, they’re being inundated…”

“But I don’t think they’re the problem in terms of Election Day, I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics.”

“And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, the military.”

There you have it. The former president is clearly talking about Election Day security, such as if the left wanted to stage its own January 6 “insurrection” against a Trump victory.

Donald Trump makes clear the National Guard and the military would be used “if necessary,” in other words, in the event of a threat to national security.

The Enemies Within Hoax is yet another ploy from a desperate and failing Harris-Walz campaign.

I’ll say it again — this is a dangerous sign of the desperation that has overtaken the democrats, because they KNOW THEY AREN’T WINNING this election; not if it’s a “fair” election.  And we may be reaching the point where it truly is “too big to steal”, and they know it.

It is clear that the democrats have regrouped and have come out with some degree of organized and coordinated attacks.  They are showing renewed vigor.  If these attempts work… they will continue.  And the discord they will sow in our country as a result will be unimaginable.

We must push back.  You must push back.  What they are pushing this country towards is a disaster of unimaginable proportions.  Even if we were to make it through, and even if there came a chance to “rebuild” — the carnage and suffering that will be ushered in if they are allowed to sow their discord without resistance… will make every history text book we’ve ever read seem mundane, as the full-color version of hell presents itself to an America that is severely unprepared for such an event.

We must push back, now.  And we must do so with the truth.  There is a reason President Trump is constantly on X and TruthSocial,  pushing back against the false narratives.  Is he afraid to use “a big stick” if it came to it?  No, I don’t think so.  But I believe the man understands that it is far better to push the illegitimate accusations back day after day after day, verbally… than it is to actually have to swing that “big stick” of force, if it came to it.

We can not let the democratic party push this country to a point where all we have left… is a battle of wills, and sticks.  And so we must engage.  And we must do so again tomorrow, and again the day after that.  We must not weary in doing what is right!

Because those who are caught up in evil… will never tire of pushing what is wrong.

They will never give up.  And so we can never give up.  Never.

That graph shows victory.  But it also symbolizes the desperation that is quickly turning dangerous.  I am celebrating the good, and praying about the other.  I hope you are, too.

https://wltreport.com/2024/10/15/kamala-resurrects-hitler-hoax-trump-will-put-people/

Michigan Judge Accepted Donation From Secretary Of State While Considering Her Appeal

 A Michigan State Supreme Court justice accepted an $82,500 donation earlier this year from a PAC tied to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, at a time when the seven-member Supreme Court was deciding an appeal filed by Benson.

The Hall of Justice building in downtown Lansing, Mich., on Aug. 17, 2018. The building is home to the Michigan Supreme Court. Shutterstock

The campaign committee for State Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden reported receiving the donation on May 17, 2024. The source of the donation, Legacy PAC, was founded and operated by Benson. Campaign finance reports show that an $82,500 donation was given on April 26, 2024, to the Keep Kyra Harris Bolden for Justice committee.

At the time, Bolden sat on the seven-member bench deciding an appeal Benson filed on Nov. 30, 2023.

On Aug. 28, 2024, Bolden filed the 5–2 majority opinion that granted Benson’s appeal. Republican election integrity advocates believe the decision will eliminate effective oversight of the conduct of elections by poll challengers.

The state Supreme Court ruling overturned a decision by the Michigan Court of Claims, and a subsequent 3–0 Michigan Court of Appeals ruling upholding the lower court’s decision, that Benson’s restrictive guidance regarding poll challengers violated state law and, therefore, had to be modified.

Benson’s loss in the Michigan Court of Appeals was the sixth legal defeat since 2020 involving her administration of statewide elections.

Calls for an Ethics Probe

On Oct. 1, election integrity activist Braden Giacobazzi and former state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, both Republicans, sent a formal request for an investigation of Bolden to the Judicial Tenure Commission, a panel that oversees the conduct of judges.

Giacobazzi and Colbeck asked the commission to look into the propriety of the Michigan Legacy PAC campaign donation.

Bolden, a Democrat, is a former state representative and criminal defense attorney from the Detroit area. She ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Michigan Supreme Court in November 2022.

Just weeks after that election, Bolden was appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, to serve for a portion of the unexpired term of retiring Justice Bridget McCormack, a Democrat.

Bolden is running in the upcoming Nov. 5 election to retain her position until Jan. 1, 2029.

Democrats currently control the state Supreme Court 4–3.

In a statement on X, Colbeck posted the complaint which alleged that Bolden’s acceptance of the $82,500 campaign contribution from a defendant in a case that was currently before the court “has all the indications of a bribe intended to influence the decision of the court.”

The Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct states that a judge should uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary, avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities, and perform duties impartially.

Bolden’s office referred inquiries to the spokesman for the Michigan Supreme Court, John Niven, who declined to comment.

On Oct. 11, Colbeck also submitted a request for an investigation of Benson, who is a lawyer, to the State of Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, a group that oversees the ethics of lawyers.

In his request for investigation, Colbeck alleged Benson’s campaign donation to a Michigan Supreme Court Justice at a time when the court had a lawsuit with Benson as a defendant before it “constitutes a serious ethics violation and misconduct as a member of the Michigan Bar Association.”

Colbeck alleged that Benson’s “repeated violations” of MCR 9.104(3) and American Bar Association Rule 8.4: Misconduct, which seeks to maintain the integrity of the legal profession, were sufficient grounds to warrant her disbarment.

Under Michigan Court Rules 9.104(3), an attorney may be disciplined for conduct that is “contrary to justice, ethics, honesty or good morals.”

Benson did not respond to a request for comment.

The Michigan Legacy PAC could not be reached by phone or email. Its website lists a Detroit P.O. Box as the PAC’s address.

The website said, “Our goal at Michigan Legacy PAC is to keep working and fighting together to ensure we build the infrastructure necessary to win the battle for democracy.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/michigan-judge-accepted-donation-secretary-state-while-considering-her-appeal

Towering, Crazed Virginia Woman Gunned Down by Brave Police Officer After Viciously Stabbing Him Multiple Times

A crazed woman viciously attacks a police officer before being fatally shot. 

Shocking bodycam footage on Monday was released by the Fairfax County Police Department, showing the moment a woman was gunned down last month after attacking police.

As Fox 5 DC reported, crisis intervention-trained officer Peter Liu on September 16 went to 33-year-old Sydney Wilson’s apartment on Sunrise Valley Drive in Reston, a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington D.C. Wilson’s doctor had previously raised concerns about her mental health.

Police said that after Liu arrived on the scene, the hulking 6’5″ 330 pound Wilson opened her door but then shut it after briefly speaking with the officer. She emerged roughly 3 minutes later holding a knife and slashing the policeman in the face.

Wilson attacks Fairfax County police officer Peter Liu with a knife. 

“Oh, Jesus Christ!” Liu exclaims.

Liu is next seen retreating from danger and pulls his firearm. He screams at Wilson to back up.

She ignores his commands and charges toward him while still holding the knife. Liu continues to back away.

Seconds later, Wilson stabs Liu in the face again, and the officer opens fire. Video footage shows she was shot three times before collapsing to the floor.

WATCH:

Police Chief Kevin Davis praised Liu’s handling of the harrowing situation and noted he had no choice but to fire his weapon after getting attacked while being trapped in the hallway. He also stated the ending could have been more tragic.

“Our police officer acted valiantly, Davis said. “He certainly exhibited some grace under pressure.”

“It could have been much, much, much worse,” Davis added.

Fox 5 DC reported Liu has been placed on administrative leave as a criminal and administrative investigation has been launched into the incident.

TikTok Mired in Legal Battles as Deadline Looms Over Ban

 TikTok is currently facing several legal battles, but its fight in a federal appeals court is an existential one.


Critics of the law that gives TikTok a divest-or-leave ultimatum call it a “ban.” TikTok itself argues the U.S. government has not provided proof it is a national security risk warranting such heavy-handed measures. Lawmakers and the U.S. intelligence community, meanwhile, argue the app poses a grave threat to national security, if it remains in the hands of the Chinese communist regime.

On April 24, President Joe Biden signed into law the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), a law that requires apps controlled by foreign adversaries to sever that connection to operate in the United States. This created a countdown for China-based parent company ByteDance to sell off TikTok by Jan. 19, 2025. ByteDance and TikTok sued, arguing the law is unconstitutional on a First Amendment basis.

Congress introduced that bill in March and passed it with broad bipartisan support the same month. While onlookers noted the swiftness with which the bill became law, the United States had negotiated with TikTok for years before matters came to this point.

TikTok Goes to Washington

TikTok entered the U.S. and global markets in September 2017, and two months later, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly with its 200 million users and folded it into TikTok.

In 2019, the U.S. government contacted ByteDance by way of  the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and flagged national security concerns.

The committee has very specific authority—to review transactions with foreign investment on the basis of national security—and it was challenged as to whether it had authority to review the purchase of Musical.ly when it had occurred two years prior.

By July 30, 2020, CFIUS had completed a formal review and announced an investigation into ByteDance’s purchase of Musical.ly.

Two weeks later, President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring ByteDance to divest from its American apps, namely TikTok. ByteDance sued, and the government lost on procedural grounds. The court questioned why an executive order was needed when CFIUS had yet to complete its investigation. The order was stayed, and the lawsuit was frozen.

From November 2020 on, the executive branch held ongoing meetings with ByteDance and TikTok, reviewing dozens of proposals and having in-depth technical discussions to find a resolution short of divestment.

David Newman, currently the second highest-ranking official in the Justice Department’s (DOJ) National Security Division, was involved in these talks and stated in a sworn affidavit filed in court in July this year that ByteDance’s incremental concessions led the government to believe they could reach a solution.

But after years of discussion, ByteDance was unwilling to agree to terms that would mitigate risks posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) access to user data and its ability to influence the app, he said.

On Aug. 23, 2022, ByteDance submitted its final proposal and has publicly touted the nearly $2 billion it invested in “Project Texas,” meant to house data on U.S. soil. However, extensive review from the government and experts found this proposal was “insufficient” to address core national security concerns.

It would ultimately require the government to trust that Oracle was reviewing TikTok’s actions in an impossible timeframe and rely on TikTok to voluntarily remedy any wrongdoing only after the government identified it.

Around 170 million people use TikTok monthy in the United States.

Clash of the National Security Laws

As TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew pointed out in congressional hearings, ByteDance is a privately owned company in the Cayman Islands. However, its headquarters is in China and companies do not need to be Chinese to be subject to Chinese laws.

The CCP has passed several laws that require all individuals and organizations operating in China to aid the CCP’s digital authoritarianism, claiming “digital sovereignty” gives it the authority to enforce these laws even overseas, and even if they conflict with foreign laws.

The CCP’s 2015 National Security Law defines security as a state where the country and CCP’s interests are “relatively free from danger and internal and external threats.” It requires people and organizations in China to report any evidence that would endanger this state and assist authorities in national security efforts.

A 2015 Anti-Terrorism Law defines terrorism broadly as “propositions and actions that ... coerce state organs or international organizations to achieve their political, ideological, or other objectives” and authorizes state surveillance while requiring all people and organizations in China to assist the CCP in this work.

The 2016 Cybersecurity Law requires companies operating in China to store data in China and allow full access to such data to CCP authorities, requiring networks to “accept supervision from the government.”

The 2017 National Intelligence Law gives the CCP the authority to conduct intelligence work through any “necessary methods, means, and channels ” and requires all individuals and organizations in China to cooperate with these operations.

These laws also contain provisions prohibiting these individuals or organizations from disclosing whether they were required to comply with CCP operations.

Put together, the laws create conditions for ByteDance to be called to secretly share with the CCP data pulled from TikTok while publicly denying this, or even without TikTok’s knowledge.

TikTok did not respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times.

“Because Chinese laws enable the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to exert control over Chinese companies’ U.S. subsidiaries ... the PRC has and can benefit from those companies’ commercial successes as the Chinese government can leverage its legal regime and other tools to co-opt those companies for geopolitical gain,” stated FBI counterintelligence assistant director Kevin Vomdran in a court filing.

The law TikTok is now challenging in federal appeals court is a U.S. national security law.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the company's relationship with its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and how it handles users' sensitive personal data, at the U.S. Capitol on March 23, 2023.
In legal arguments, TikTok says the law violates the First Amendment by blocking the speech of the 170 million monthly users in the United States. That argument has received broad support from prominent First Amendment advocates, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and others who filed an amicus brief.
Other legal experts argue the issue is not First Amendment-related at all, as the law addresses non-expressive conduct (ownership by a foreign adversary) rather than expression (content on the app). One group of legal experts argued in an amicus brief that the United States has long used divestment to address national security concerns.
A federal court has already upheld the law, PAFACA, which is now being appealed before a panel of three judges in the circuit court.

TikTok argues that the law effectively bans the app in the United States, as divestment is not an option because the Chinese regime will not allow ByteDance to sell TikTok.

Attorneys general from 21 states argued in an amicus brief that this amounts to an admission that TikTok will adhere to Chinese law over U.S. law when the two conflict.

What Value Is TikTok to the CCP?

Some critics of TikTok say the app has numerous negative effects on users, particularly young users. They are wary of the CCP’s ability to use the app to influence the American public, pointing to two reports that conclude the app’s algorithm suppresses content critical of the CCP.

Communications attorney Joel Thayer told The Epoch Times that this is not what the law targets and it would indeed violate the First Amendment if it did.

“Even after you divest, if you want to be the arm of the CCP PR campaign, you can do that. You just can’t be tethered to a company that has this many ties to the CCP,” he said. Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, represented two groups that filed separate amicus briefs arguing PAFACA’s constitutionality.

Pro-CCP content is probably rather low on the list of national security concerns when it comes to TikTok, Thayer said.

“What the divest law is saying here is, we actually are really worried about the data transmissions that are occurring because of this relationship, and also the ability for these individuals to set their algorithms over in China to essentially not just their point of view, but also conduct espionage campaigns,” Thayer said.

“That is an enormous national security concern, and it’s got nothing to do with whether or not the content is favorable or disfavorable to the American population, to the American government.”

Some critics of the law have argued that most social media platforms collect much of the same data TikTok collects, and the bill does not remedy this. Indeed, PAFACA does not target TikTok’s data collection either, which would require a much more complex law.

Joseph Steinberg, cybersecurity expert, told The Epoch Times that Facebook, for example, probably has more data on Americans than TikTok, given that it has been around longer and links up with other apps and accounts to function as a login key. Even the biometrics TikTok says in its privacy policy that it may collect are not entirely unique, nor are they particularly difficult to obtain these days.
An employee walks outside the headquarters of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, in Beijing on Aug. 5, 2020.

“If you shoot a high-definition video, I can do a facial dynamic analysis of you. If you have pictures of your fingers that are at high definition, I can collect your fingerprints,” Steinberg said.

Steinberg says one can’t rule out that spies within American tech and social media companies could help foreign adversaries obtain the same data, or worse, that there are hardware vulnerabilities in popular devices like phones or used by American companies that can collect and do much more than software ever could. He added that the data has value to businesses and foreign adversaries, but it is impossible to say just how valuable it could be.

Consider all that the teens and pre-teens of TikTok document through the app, Steinberg said. Should a foreign government, decades later, have incriminating or exonerating evidence of a high-profile individual, wouldn’t that put them in a position for blackmail?

“Storage is cheap. Storing everything about everybody can be valuable to adversaries,” Steinberg said.

Cybersecurity expert Steve McKeon, CEO of Macguyver Tech, told The Epoch Times that he has seen TikTok send data to China. McKeon recalled one job where he helped a company deal with ransomware and found that the malicious software was sending TikTok-collected data to China.

His associates in Quokka Cybersecurity separately found that TikTok engages in what they call “app collusion,” collecting data where it shouldn’t and sending it to China, as they told members of Congress last year during a risk briefing. App collusion means TikTok obtains data gathered by other apps, which is usually a hallmark of malware.

“We can see where the data is going,” but not what it’s being used for, McKeon said.

And knowing about how CCP-backed actors have been engaging in cyberspace ... “It’s probably not good.”

McKeon pointed to federal charges against CCP hackers for intellectual property theft and said with the amount of information the average person overshares online, it’s possible for a malicious actor to impersonate key personnel to deceive perhaps an employee of a targeted company to obtain key information or access—a situation he’s encountered more than once.

McKeon said that the TikTok app functions very unusually compared to industry best practices, but it’s not necessarily illegal activity because technology moves at a speed far swifter than lawmaking. Plus, software updates mean an app can act maliciously for a period of time before updating to remove evidence of that behavior before it can be proven. Intelligence officials stated similar concerns in court filings in the TikTok lawsuit.

“There’s just a cloud around this app,” McKeon said.

The suspicious behavior includes the way TikTok contacts networks. Normally, when an app connects to the internet, it reaches out to the closest server.

“TikTok’s not doing that. TikTok’s going halfway around the world to the first target in China,” he said, and there isn’t a particularly good reason to do that. “It’s not going to a couple of different servers and eventually making it there.”

He added that housing data on American soil doesn’t mean much if personnel in China receive the data before it is even stored, which would explain why TikTok’s final proposal did not persuade the government.

If the CCP has easy access to this vast dataset, digital surveillance is possible. Because the CCP enforces laws extraterritorially, a CCP-tethered TikTok poses the risk of allowing the regime to track Chinese dissidents and human rights activists whom the regime has vocally declared should be extradited to China for punishment by force if necessary. The FBI and international human rights groups call this “transnational repression.”

“It’s not just a national security issue, it’s a human rights issue,” said Thayer. One of the amicus groups he represented was a coalition of several human rights groups advocating for Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, and Tibetans—groups deeply familiar with the CCP’s digital surveillance and persecution.

Campaign for Uyghurs executive director Rushan Abbas holds a photo of her sister, Gulshan Abbas, who is being imprisoned by the Chinese regime, during a rally in New York City on March 22, 2021.

Rushan Abbas is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Uyghurs, and for this, the CCP has labeled her a “terrorist.” On Sept. 5, 2018, Abbas spoke out about the regime’s persecution of Uyghurs, including 24 members of her husband’s missing family members, at a panel event in the United States.

Five days later, Abbas’s sister, Gulshan Abbas, disappeared. It was only in December 2020 that Abbas received confirmation that her sister had been abducted and detained by the Chinese regime, given a 20-year sentence on charges of terrorism and social disruption.

“I am the target of the CCP’s ongoing harassment, threats, libel, and blackmail, both in-person and online, aimed at discrediting my activism for the Uyghur people suffering genocide,” Abbas told The Epoch Times.

TikTok’s ability to track not just users, but people in their network, creates real safety concerns for human rights activists and their family members who may be in China, Abbas explained.

“TikTok, under the control of the CCP, is legally required to share user data with the Chinese government. This creates a serious risk to our privacy, exposing sensitive information while facilitating the CCP’s transnational repression.”

TikTok also has a history of repressing content about the CCP’s human rights abuses, according to researchers from Rutgers University. In one viral incident, social media user Feroza Aziz posted an eyelash curling tutorial during which she talked about how the CCP persecutes Muslim Uyghurs. The video soon amassed 1.6 million views before TikTok deleted it within the hour, and Aziz lost access to her account. TikTok later apologized, claiming it was an error.
U.S. teen Feroza Aziz informs viewers about the Chinese Communist Party's detention of at least 1 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China, in a video on TikTok, which was later censored.

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, also has a record of targeting dissenters.

Last year, former ByteDance executive Yintao “Roger” Yu sued his former employer for damages after allegedly being fired for raising concerns about the company’s intellectual property theft. In court filings, he also alleged that personnel in China had direct access to American data and broad admin powers to influence the apps.

Shortly after Yu went public with these allegations, he and his attorney experienced indicators of digital surveillance, they alleged in court filings. For example, Yu’s attorney had a private Zoom call intercepted by an uninvited user. In another incident, a college acquaintance of Yu’s, who hadn’t had contact with Yu for some years, stated that he received a visit from a private investigator who told him ByteDance would like to get in contact with Yu.
Another former ByteDance employee stated in a sworn affidavit that after publicly saying that ByteDance engages with the CCP to censor content, their father was detained by police from the CCP’s Ministry of Public Security in a remote, secret facility and was told it was because his child gave an interview about ByteDance and the regime.

“Under extreme fear, my mother was crying and informed me that my father had been detained,” reads the statement, which was submitted to support Yu’s argument that certain witnesses should have their identities protected from ByteDance. “Based on personal experience, I believe that ByteDance considers employees who speak out against the company’s practices as ‘traitors’ who need to be destroyed at any cost.”

TikTok and its supporters argue that the U.S. government has not provided any proof that it is a bad actor to warrant a divestiture law, but lawmakers argue this misunderstands the role of policymaking.

“A smoking gun means a shot has already been fired,” Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, said at a panel on Sept. 25. “Demanding to see a smoking gun before taking action puts policymakers into a reactive posture.”

We should, instead, be looking for “loaded guns” like companies beholden to the CCP’s national security laws, he said.

A security guard on duty during the opening session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2024.
Months after PAFACA was signed into law, Congress returned to its fall session with a raft of bills aimed at countering CCP threats. Several were fast-tracked with broad support, largely targeting future behavior such as CCP investment in American institutions.
The Biden administration has also proposed a series of rules aimed at protecting American supply chains from dependence on the CCP, such as new and increased tariffs or a proposed ban on Chinese software and firmware in American cars.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/tiktok-mired-in-legal-battles-as-deadline-looms-over-ban-5733972

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