'This Week' Transcript 3-26-23: Rep. Mike Gallagher, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell

Interview

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Well, I think that we're kind of targets of opportunity for these Iranian-backed militias. But we're not going anywhere. We have to stay in northern Syria and work with our partners in Iraq as well in fighting ISIS. And I think the Biden administration did exactly what it had to do in responding to these Iranian militias.

I believe there have been 78 attacks by these militias during the Trump administration and now the Biden administration. And, unfortunately, we're going to have to deal with them appropriately, but we're not leaving that part of the world as we deal with ISIS.

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No, it did not. I think that it created more concerns quite frankly.

I'll just point to a few things.

One is that he was not willing to call what the Chinese employees of ByteDance did on spying on American journalists and citizens as being spying. Everybody was scratching their head when he actually said that.

He also was unwilling to acknowledge that there's a genocide going on with regard to the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province, in the northwest corner of China. Again, bowing to pressure from this Chinese communist party.

And then, finally, you know, there's a saying, don't mess with Texas. But Project Texas is a mess. There are whistleblowers coming forward saying that whatever the TikTok management is saying about Project Texas is a pack of lies, and that even when they erected this firewall, supposed firewall with regard to data of American users, these Chinese employees of ByteDance, the parent company, were able to spy on American journalists.

So, unfortunately, I don't think that he did TikTok any favors through his testimony.

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Well, I think good policy makes good politics. And in this particular case, we have to recognize that while TikTok is another social media app and we have a generalized concern about these social media apps, it's different in kind from any other social media app because its parent company is beholden to the Chinese communist party.

That is why on a bipartisan basis, we've banned TikTok from all federal devices. And that's why the FBI director, the director of national intelligence, the CIA director, and the entire intelligence community believe it's a severe risk to our national security and we have to deal with it.

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