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Trump claims TikTok will be banned if not sold by Sept. 15

03 August 2020
Dan Ackermann

President Trump said Monday that TikTok will be shut down in the U.S. if it hasn't been bought by Microsoft or another company by Sept. 15.

Why it matters: Trump appears to have backed off his threat to immediately ban TikTok after speaking with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who said Sunday that the company will pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to purchase the app in the U.S.

The big picture: TikTok has come under intense scrutiny in the U.S. due to concerns that the vast amounts of data it collects could be accessed by the Chinese government, potentially posing a national security threat.

  • Negotiations between TikTok and Microsoft will be overseen by a special government panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Reuters reports.

What he's saying: Trump appeared to suggest on Monday, without elaborating, that Microsoft would have to pay the U.S. government in order to complete the deal. He also argued that Microsoft should buy all of TikTok, not just 30% of the company.

  • "I don't mind if, whether it's Microsoft or somebody else, a big company, a secure company, a very American company, buy it. It's probably easier to buy the whole thing than to buy 30% of it. How do you do 30%? Who's going to get the name? The name is hot, the brand is hot," Trump said.
  • "A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States. Because we're making it possible for this deal to happen. Right now they don't have any rights, unless we give it to them. So if we're going to give them the rights, it has to come into this country. It's a little bit like the landlord/tenant," he added.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Dan Primack: Trump's inexplicable claim that part of Microsoft's purchase price would have to go to the Treasury is skating very close to announcing extortion.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.