Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the Trump administration is considering restricting US users’ access to the Chinese social media app TikTok over concerns that the Beijing government is using it as a means to monitor and spread to people.
Pompeo told “The Ingraham Angle” that he and President Trump are taking the reports seriously after presenter Laura Ingraham said India had already banned the app and Australia is considering doing so.
“We are taking this very seriously and we are certainly looking at it. We have been working on this for a long time, whether it be the problem of having Huawei technology in its infrastructure. We have traveled the world and we are making real progress to achieve it: We had declared ZTE a danger to American national security, “Pompeo said.
“With regard to Chinese applications on people’s cell phones, I can assure you that the United States will do well as well,” he said, adding that he did not want to dive into details and potentially “get ahead” of any presidential announcement.
“But, it is something we are seeing,” he said, warning Americans to be cautious about using TikTok, so they don’t want your private information “in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
SUSAN RICE SLAMS TRUMP ABOUT RUSSIAN GIFTS
Pompeo also responded to former Obama Administration National Security adviser Susan Rice after the potential 2020 Democratic vice presidential candidate criticized him for appearing to be one of what she called “flatterers and weaklings” who are allegedly refuses to properly advise Trump.
Rice made the comments after a story emerged about Russia allegedly offering rewards to US soldiers in Afghanistan. Ingraham called the story “murky” and played a clip of Rice for Pompeo.
“This is not the time to give Putin an olive branch. We have a president who is doing what our arch-adversaries order him to look like, and he is surrounded by flatterers and weaklings who are not doing their job, who do not have the confidence in themselves and in the mission they are there to carry out, to bring to the president the difficult messages he needs to hear, “said Rice, whom some political observers see as a possible candidate for Joe Biden.
Pompeo said it was shocking to hear Rice speak that way.
“She has a history of going to Sunday shows and lying. You will remember that in 2012, she attended five Sunday shows [after] Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods had perished under the supervision of their administration in Benghazi, Libya, made up a story about a video and a protest when they knew very well that it was a terrorist attack, “he said.
“He did it because it was politically convenient to say that, and it is the worst behavior of a national security leader, and as for his comments on Russia, he was under Obama’s watch, under Susan Rice’s watch, under the vice presidency. Biden that Ukraine had a fifth of its real estate taken by Vladimir Putin with virtually no response. “
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Pompeo was referring to the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Kremlin, a part of Ukraine that borders Russia, but was once part of the former Soviet Union.
“It was under his supervision that Syria was handed over to the Russians as a result of a ‘red line’ that Obama had drawn in the sand and refused to apply.”
He added that when it comes to defending and honoring US troops, Trump is by far the best leader compared to Rice, Biden and President Obama.
“It was his administration that subscribed to the Iranian regime while killing US soldiers in the Middle East. That was an administration that did not care about our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and certainly did not act in a way that ensured the national interest of United States, “he said.
