Rand Paul breaks ranks with GOP on TikTok ban: 'Goes against the First Amendment'

Ryan King

March 28, 06:13 PM March 28, 06:13 PM

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is separating himself from the bipartisan push to ban TikTok, a China-affiliated short-form video app, amid fears that it poses national security risks.

At least two bipartisan bills have been floating in the upper chamber to ban the social media app, and the House is mulling similar action. Despite a powerful chorus of Republicans clamoring for the ban, Paul argued that enacting one would trample First Amendment rights.

TIKTOK SQUAD: PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS COME OUT AS ALLIES FOR CHINA-AFFILIATED APP

"I think it's a really bad idea. And people need to ask themselves, why does the Chinese government ban TikTok, and do we want to emulate the Chinese government? So I think it's a mistake," Paul told WHD News. "If you ban a social media platform, you know, I don't know if you get any clearer that that goes against the First Amendment."

One of the bills proposed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) would grant President Joe Biden authority to prohibit the app. Another measure from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) would outright ban it.

"I'm for the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says that companies that operate in the United States, we shouldn't limit their speech, or people who try to broadcast speech on those platforms," Paul told the outlet.

Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on TikTok. In it, members of Congress took turns grilling the company's CEO, Shou Zi Chew. He downplayed the company's ties to Beijing. TikTok's parent company is the Chinese firm ByteDance.

China maintains civil-military practices, raising concerns the Chinese Community Party could harvest U.S. data from TikTok.

Chew conceded that ByteDance might have some access to U.S. data, but he underscored that the company is implementing a mitigation plan called Project Texas. Lawmakers appeared unsatisfied with his assurances, as committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) subsequently re-upped calls for banning the application.

Democrats have publicly splintered on TikTok, with progressive members such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) coming out against a ban. But Republicans have largely appeared united.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has voiced support for taking up similar legislation in the House. The Biden administration has been coy about its position on banning the app, but it has sounded the alarms about the national security risks TikTok poses.

Regardless of if a ban gets through Congress, Paul contends that the courts could intervene. In 2020, a federal judge halted then-President Donald Trump's efforts to ban the app.

"The courts have already struck that down when the Trump administration tried to ban TikTok," Paul added. "It was struck down."

GOP-led health committees would probe fentanyl crisis and COVID-19 origins

Abigail Adcox

November 06, 03:00 AM November 06, 03:00 AM

Republicans are aiming to conduct investigations into the Biden administration's pandemic spending, the origins of the coronavirus, and the tech industry's role in the fentanyl crisis if they take control of the House and Senate next week.

GOP leaders slotted to succeed their Democratic colleagues on key health committees have indicated they plan to scrutinize Big Tech to do more to crack down on illegal fentanyl sales on their platforms and oversee how the Department of Health and Human Services will implement new drug pricing policies under Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, among other items.

As the majority party, Republicans would be able to drive their committees' legislative agendas and have the ability to issue subpoenas to compel testimony, setting up what could be a flurry of investigations into the Biden administration.

On the House side, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is poised to take over as chairwoman. The committee has jurisdiction over a wide variety of areas, including substance abuse, biomedical research and development, Medicare, and Medicaid.

AUTHORITIES PROBE MISSOURI HOSPITAL FOR DENIAL OF ABORTION IN TEST OF BIDEN POLICY

Rodgers hinted in September that she plans to steer investigations into the administration's COVID-19 response.

"Overall, regarding the COVID response, the lockdowns, the decisions that were made in response to COVID, we want to look at the decisions that were made, what drove those decisions, and how we might want to approach that in the future," Rodgers told Punchbowl News.

A GOP aide on the committee said Republicans are looking at having Biden officials testify, including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.

"Nothing is off the table for our committee’s oversight work. From the prolonged school closures to the worsening fentanyl crisis, this administration’s agenda is harming our children, leading to more ‘deaths of despair,’ and betraying public trust. Energy and Commerce Republicans will lead a robust oversight strategy to hold the Biden administration accountable and inform policymaking to improve Americans’ quality of life,” Chris Krepich, a Republican spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told the Washington Examiner.

Other priorities will be addressing the rate of deaths from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that's 50 times stronger than heroin, through legislation and unwinding the COVID-19 public health emergency, according to the aide.

On the House Oversight and Reform Committee, the chamber's chief investigative arm, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) would be next to run the panel. Comer told the Washington Post he will prioritize investigations into the origins of COVID-19 and the federal dollars that supported research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the center of a lab leak theory, and the administration's COVID-19 spending.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) would be the most senior Republican in line to lead the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, with Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) retiring.

Paul has been a firebrand on the committee, getting into several heated exchanges with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, accusing him of creating "superviruses" through National Institutes of Health funding that flowed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci has repeatedly denied these claims.

While Paul has not indicated which committee spots he would want if his party has the majority, he has been adamant that investigations into the origins of COVID-19 will continue after Fauci retires at the end of this year.

“Fauci’s resignation will not prevent a full-throated investigation into the origins of the pandemic. He will be asked to testify under oath regarding any discussions he participated in concerning the lab leak,” Paul tweeted in August.

While Democrats on the health committees have led hearings focused on the coronavirus response during their tenure, Republicans would turn up the heat on the Biden administration, should they regain control.