Fox’s Brian Kilmeade Presses Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Over TikTok Flip-Flop: ‘We Wouldn’t Let Them Buy ABC or CBS’
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade pushed Trump lawyer and incoming counselor to the president Alina Habba about President-elect Donald Trump potentially reversing a ban on TikTok.
Trump spoke to reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, with SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son on Monday and took questions for almost an hour in a wild press conference chock full of provocative moments.
TikTok Comes Up At Presser
In one exchange, Trump expressed openness to reversing the ban that’s set to take effect next year, saying “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok. Because I won youth by 34 points, there are those that say that TikTok had something to do with that. TikTok had an impact. And so we’re taking a look at it. We won youth. Republicans are always 30 points down in youth.”
On Thursday’s edition of Fox & Friends, Kilmeade pressed Habba, ticking through a raft of problems with the platform and asking “Do we want TikTok run by China to have this type of power?”:
BRIAN KILMEADE: So TikTok. I know the president loves it as platform, but as the Chinese propaganda device, it’s pretty strong. Their control of the news feed.
You’re going to see nothing pro-Israel. When the president starts getting into his trade deals with and fighting with China on tariffs. You’ll see nothing pro tariff or pro-American there.
Do we want TikTok run by China to have this type of power of 170 million users in the United States? We would never let them buy ABC or CBS.
ALINA HABBA: Listen, there’s nobody that appreciates fake news or the value of real American voices more than President Trump because he’s been a victim of the fake news.
But with TikTok, it’s interesting. Do we or does anybody disagree that we cannot have a platform with national security issues? Absolutely not.
Does that mean that it’s not unfixable? I don’t think so. And I think that the right person for that job is President Trump.
Unfortunately, Joe Biden is trying to get rid of it very quickly so that President Trump cannot save a platform that is widely used. However, it has to be– it has to has to comply with American security standards. It has to be. It can’t be a national security threat.
And President Trump understands all of that. And he will examine it. He will be in communications with these people, unlike Joe Biden, and try and resolve the issue in a way that works for Americans.
Watch above via Fox & Friends.
