Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, is condemning former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for his attempt to acquire the social media platform TikTok.
“I don’t understand how America's security would be improved if the next owner of TikTok is a supporter of former President Trump and is supported by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund,” Wyden told Semafor in a piece published on Tuesday.
“I am extremely concerned about the Chinese government's access to personal information of Americans,” Wyden continued. “But every worry about Chinese influence is similarly relevant when it involves a Saudi government that carried out the assassination of a Washington Post journalist and placed spyware on his wife’s phone.”
Mnuchin, who previously served as Treasury secretary under former President Trump, stated last Thursday that he is assembling a group to purchase TikTok after the House approved a bill that would prohibit the platform in the U.S. if its parent company, based in China, does not divest from it.
“I believe the legislation should be approved, and I believe it should be sold,” Mnuchin said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“It’s a great business, and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok,” he added.
Multiple sources have reported that Mnuchin’s private equity fund, Liberty Strategic Capital, has investors which include Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Mnuchin's statements supporting the legislation banning TikTok conflict with those of his former boss, former President Trump, who opposes it and has argued that it would benefit Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social earlier this month. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
The Hill has reached out to Liberty Strategic Capital.
