During a portion of an interview with the Fox News Channel that took place on Thursday and was aired on Friday’s “Special Report,” 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump “there’s a danger to banning” TikTok “with freedom of speech.” And “what can you do is, let them sell TikTok, let them sell it in the market, maybe get a good price, maybe not get a good price, I don’t know, but take it away from China control. But I think China controls Facebook,” as well.
Kurtz said, [relevant remarks begin around 2:30] “After the House voted to overwhelmingly ban TikTok if it doesn’t cut ties with its China-based parent company, Trump told Fox News why he no longer favors a government ban that he pushed as President on national security grounds, citing the free exchange of ideas.”
He then played a clip of Trump saying, “But there’s a danger to banning it with freedom of speech. I found Facebook to be extremely dishonest. And what would happen is, if you ban TikTok, if you take it away, we have a new concept, but if you take it away, those people are going to go into Facebook. And Facebook, in my opinion, was worse than TikTok by a lot.”
Kurtz then stated, “Trump, who recently met with philanthropist Jeff Yass, says he didn’t know the billionaire owns a stake in TikTok’s parent firm.”
He then played a clip of Trump saying, “[I]f you’re going to do it to TikTok, do it to Facebook, and what can you do is, let them sell TikTok, let them sell it in the market, maybe get a good price, maybe not get a good price, I don’t know, but take it away from China control. But I think China controls Facebook, also, because they have tremendous power in that company.”
More of the interview is set to air on Sunday’s “MediaBuzz.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
