Biden’s Commerce Sec. Says She’s Reluctant to Ban China’s TikTok Because Democrats Would ‘Lose Every Voter Under 35 Forever’.

Yes, she literally said it.

Former Rhode Island governor turned Biden Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo gave a scarcely noticed interview to Bloomberg last week, where she cravenly admitted her reluctance to address the Chinese Communist Party’s most critical cultural stranglehold in America: TikTok.

The app, predicted to have 100 million U.S. users by next year, is owned by ByteDance, which in turn is backed by the Chinese Communist Party proper.

Asked about the Biden government’s approach, Raimondo responded:

“The politician in me thinks you’re gonna literally lose every voter under 35, forever… However much I hate TikTok—and I do, because I see the addiction in the bad s**t that it serves kids—you know, this is America.”

Using the phrase “This is America” to avoid national security measures to limit the influence of a foreign and hostile global actor requires some chutzpah. But not as much as is required to tell us to our faces that the reason they won’t take action is because the zombie hordes of TikTok influencers would roundly condemn them for doing so.

Perhaps Raimondo meant, “This is America… where national security is determined by the fancies of the kids we had to plead with not to eat Tide Pods a few years ago.”

In fact, that’s exactly what she meant.

It’s also one of the rare occasions I find use for Senator Marco Rubio, who caught the comments last week and said of them:

“People were horrified by the Chinese spy balloon that flew through multiple states in our nation. However, that level of spying happens every day through TikTok, which is a clear national security risk that collects and manipulates content on behalf of the CCP. We know that TikTok has surveilled and spied on journalists, violating civil liberties. This is not just some harmless social media app, but a critical tool that gives Beijing power over the day-to-day lives of more than 100 million Americans. Now is the time to pass my ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act and end this threat for good.

Bit mealy mouthed, but it gets the point across.

In reality, it seems and sounds more likely from here on Capitol Hill that some form of restriction will be applied to TikTok and similar apps that have foreign owners, foreign origins, and shady data practices. The more people I speak to about it, the more I am convinced TikTok’s days are numbered. Tick, tock…