Dem
51
GOP
49
Who said bipartisanship is dead? Yesterday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joined hands, sang "Kumbaya," and voted together in a valiant, but likely futile, attempt to ban TikTok unless it is sold to an American company. Those two don't typically vote the same way on bills. The vote was 352-65, reflecting a bipartisan consensus on going after China in an election year. In a rare defeat in the House, Donald Trump urged Republicans to vote "no," but most of them voted "yes," except those running for vice president. Other naysayers included Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV). In the end, 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voted to defeat the bill.
Representatives who voted "aye" were largely concerned about giving data on 170 million Americans to China. Representatives who voted "nay" were largely concerned about free-speech issues. As a result, the vote cut across party lines in an unusual way.
The bill will face a tougher fight in the Senate, where it could be filibustered. If the bill passes both chambers, Joe Biden said he will sign it. If the bill becomes law, the owner of the app, ByteDance, will probably sue (on First Amendment grounds) and as usual the Supreme Court will decide. After all, its mandate is to decide everything, all the time.
However, there is at least a small chance that Microsoft, Oracle, and other companies get into a bidding war and one of them makes a bid so attractive that ByteDance decides to take the money and run. After all, with tens of billions of dollars, they can afford to hire a couple of programmers and write a new app. Also, if Donald Trump wins the election, he will rail against China and then probably ask Chinese President Xi Jinping how much he will pay for Trump to refrain from enforcing the law banning the app. (V)