'Alarming': Congress scolded by NYT editorial board after confirming 'founders' fears'
Lawmakers in Congress were dressed down by The New York Times editorial board on Friday for confirming the "founders’ fears."
The editorial board called out President Donald Trump's administration over its refusal to enforce a law that said ByteDance would have to either sell TikTok or face a ban in the United States. The app has faced criticism for being a Chinese propaganda tool.
"Legal scholars, be they liberal or conservative, have criticized Mr. Trump’s nonenforcement as illegal. Among the many lawless acts of his second term, the disregard for a recently passed federal law is among the most brazen. It is also a gift to the world’s most powerful authoritarian government," the board wrote.
The editorial highlighted two "alarming features" that has led America to this point. The first being Trump's tendency to put his interests ahead of both the rule of law and national security, the board said.
"Not only can he and his allies continue using TikTok, but he also has leverage over ByteDance and the tech companies that host TikTok on app stores or servers, including Google, Apple and Oracle," the editors said.
The second is Congressional lawmakers' decision to cede their power to Trump — the very thing the founders worried about when drafting the Constitution.
"It is the meekness of Congress, especially in response to his power grabs. The founders intended Congress to be the most active of the three branches of government. That is why it is the subject of Article I of the Constitution. The founders worried about the rise of another king, and they saw a powerful legislature as protection against that possibility," the board noted.
While Congress passed the TikTok ban in bipartisan fashion, Trump has simply ignored the law — and Congress hasn't responded with hearings, lawsuits, or included enforcement in other pieces of legislation.
"This timidity has become the norm for Congress, in areas far beyond this law. Legislators have voluntarily surrendered their power to the president and frequently act not as the heart of the American government but as a rubber stamp for one man," the board railed.
The editors concluded with a plea to Congress — "step up."
"It should do what the founders intended and act as a bulwark of American democracy. It should insist that Mr. Trump enforce the law," they concluded.