With 72 Hours To Go, Tiktok Ban Sends Washington Scrambling

As a historic TikTok ban looms, lawmakers are hunting for ways to save the app — sending Congress, the White House and possibly federal enforcers into unknown territory.

A group of Democrats on Capitol Hill, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have personally appealed to President Joe Biden’s White House to delay the Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok to divest from Beijing-based ByteDance or face a ban from U.S. app stores.

Incoming President Donald Trump, who once tried to bar TikTok by executive order, now wants to stave off the ban — potentially putting his Justice Department in the position of not enforcing a federal law. And even some China hawks in Congress say they’re newly open to arrangements that could keep the app online a little longer.

“It's clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers,” said Schumer, who was largely quiet on the issue until Thursday. “TikTok should survive, but under new ownership.”

Though lawmakers of both parties overwhelmingly voted for the TikTok bill, and Biden quickly signed it into law, now it appears no party wants to face a public reckoning for banning an ultra-popular app with 170 million U.S. users.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), soon to be Trump’s national security adviser, said Wednesday on Fox News, “We’re going to find a way to preserve [TikTok] but protect people's data and that's the deal that will be in front of us.”

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers are also pushing for a reprieve for the app, and pressing Biden to use his power granted by the law to give TikTok an extension.

“I’ve been calling” the Biden White House, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told POLITICO. "They're coming around, I think the President's gonna [intervene]," he said.

A White House official poured water on the idea of Biden delaying a ban, telling POLITICO: “Our interpretation of the law that Congress passed is that absent a credible plan from the company on how they will divest, the President does not have statutory authority to trigger the 90 day extension. The company has not only not advanced such a plan, they have signaled they have no intention of selling it to an American owner.”

Caitlin Legacki, a former Biden Commerce Department official, referred to the situation as a “game of chicken” and said both parties were searching for a last-ditch solution to avoid political backlash.

“Somebody is going to find a way to strike a deal, and they will be regarded as the hero of a TikTok generation,” she said. “Democrats see the writing on the wall here, but I do think it speaks to a failure of both parties to actually explain to voters why this was necessary, and as a result, we're going to probably roll back what was the correct policy.”

In a remarkable indicator of the shift in TikTok’s political status, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew — once grilled ruthlessly by both parties in an all-day House hearing — will be a guest at Trump’s inauguration with a seat on the dais, according to two sources familiar with the event planning.

Still, Congress is far from united on how to respond to the changing political winds. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who voted for the Senate foreign aid package that included the TikTok law but spoke out against its inclusion at the time, also reached out to Biden, an aide said.

Markey tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to pass a bill extending the deadline to sell TikTok. He said the risk of Chinese influence needed to be considered alongside “the serious hardship” and “unintended consequences” of a ban. “With the impending TikTok ban, Congress has gotten that balance wrong,” he said on the floor.

Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) blocked Markey’s attempt. “TikTok’s owners had plenty of time to find a buyer. And there were plenty of willing buyers as well,” Cotton said.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told POLITICO he was skeptical of going around the law to allow for the app to remain tied to Beijing. “It's not about not having TikTok. It's just about not having the PRC — the Chinese Communist Party — own and operate it for propaganda,” he said.

Congress passed the TikTok law in April, warning that the app’s ties to China posed a threat to national security. TikTok denied the claims and challenged the law at the Supreme Court, where justices heard arguments last week.

Trump, who had tried in vain to ban TikTok in 2020, vowed during his campaign to “save” the app, and submitted a friend-of-the-court brief asking the justices to pause the Jan. 19 ban so he could cut a deal to keep it running. The high court agreed to hear the case on an expedited schedule but have yet to block the law or delay its implementation.