Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon reports interesting news about TikTok’s political clout.
Executives at high-powered firms hired by TikTok for lobbying and strategic consulting visited the White House at least 40 times in the past year, according to official White House visitor records.
The Chinese social media platform and its parent company, ByteDance, are mounting a massive public relations blitz as lawmakers are seeking to ban the app due to national security, espionage, and data privacy concerns. ByteDance and TikTok have spent $13 million on federal lobbying since 2019 and hired heavyweight firms such as influential Democratic public relations shop SKDK.
Those hired guns have had the ear of the White House, the records show. Former Louisiana Democratic senator John Breaux, a TikTok lobbyist at Crossroads Strategies, visited the White House at least three times last year, most recently for an event on Dec. 21. Stephanie Leger Short, another TikTok lobbyist who works with Breaux, attended a June 23 meeting with White House adviser Mitch Landrieu. Breaux also met with White House official John Podesta last November.
Other visitors included former Tennessee Democratic congressman Barton Gordon, a ByteDance lobbyist who attended White House events on Dec. 1 and last September, and Lauren Aronson, a ByteDance lobbyist who visited twice in September.
None of the lobbyists and firms responded to requests for comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
While it’s unclear if TikTok was discussed during any of the visits—which included a mix of large events and small private meetings—the number of contacts shows the extensive clout of TikTok’s growing lobbying network inside the White House.
Former Democratic congressman Joseph Crowley (N.Y.)—who, Politico reported, helped arrange meetings for TikTok on Capitol Hill last month—is also listed at least four times in the 2022 visitors’ logs. Crowley met with presidential special assistant John McCarthy in August and White House adviser Mariana Adame in September, according to records.