Several high-profile Republican senators are standing against Donald Trump's call for leniency on the TikTok ban, warning that any company bypassing the prohibition risks enormous legal exposure. Their stance highlights a growing internal rift, as lawmakers emphasize national security over presidential appeals for business flexibility.
It has been reported that Donald Trump has been able to maintain a firm hold over the Republican party; nevertheless, his most recent act has caused a number of senators from the Republican party to break with Trump.
On Sunday, Jonathan Turley, a law professor and contributor to Fox News who is known for his unwavering support of all things Trump, expressed his uncertainty regarding the president-elect's request that businesses have faith that they will not be held liable in the event that they are successful in thwarting the TikTok ban.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a supporter of President Trump, made an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. During his appearance, Johnson stated that they will follow the law about the ban that was passed by Congress in the sake of national security.
However, according to a report from NBC, that is not all there is to it.
According to the reports, "Shortly before Johnson's comments, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., broke with Trump, too, celebrating the app's ban that went into effect Sunday."
Cotton and Ricketts expressed their admiration for Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for their legal actions in ceasing operations with ByteDance and TikTok. They urged other companies to follow suit. It bears repeating that every business that disobeys the law faces the prospect of catastrophic insolvency.
They continued by saying, "Now that the law has taken effect, there's no legal basis for any kind of 'extension' of its effective date. For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law's qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China."
After that, Cotton would later threaten "ruinous liability" for any corporation that followed the instructions of President-elect Donald Trump by reinstating access to the TikTok app after law had prohibited it, The Raw Story shares.
At the time, the congressman stated that any corporation involved with communist-controlled TikTok might be subject to hundreds of billions of dollars in disastrous damage due to securities law, shareholder lawsuits, state AGs, and other legal actions.
It was described by Vaughn Hillyard, a correspondent for NBC, as Cotton "pushing back" on the President-elect.
