Sen. Ron Wyden said former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s plan to avoid a ban on TikTok by leading a purchase of the Chinese-owned social media platform is no improvement.
The Oregon Democrat said Mr. Mnuchin is a tainted ally of both former President Donald Trump and the government of Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t see how America will be any more secure if the next owner of TikTok is a MAGA Trump crony backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund,” Mr. Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told Semafor in a Tuesday article.
“I’m absolutely concerned about the Chinese government’s access to Americans’ personal data,” Mr. Wyden said. “But every concern that has been voiced about Chinese influence is equally valid when it comes to the Saudi government that murdered a Washington Post journalist after planting spyware on his wife’s phone.”
Mr. Mnuchin said last week that he is trying to buy Tiktok as part of an investor group.
“I’m going to put together a group to try and buy TikTok,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “It should be owned by U.S. businesses.”
The announcement came after the House passed a bill saying TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, needs to sell the app or else it would be banned from the app store in the U.S.
Reports have said that Liberty Strategic Capital, the private equity fund led by Mr. Mnuchin, has investors from Saudi Arabia, including the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund.
Mr. Mnuchin wouldn’t say which of his partners would be involved in the purchase of the social media company.
“I can’t tell that to you now. It would be a combination of investors,” he said on CNBC. “It would be no one investor that controlled this.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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