CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju questioned Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) if former President Donald Trump’s opposition to the TikTok divestment bill influenced their vote.
Greene and Mace voted against the bipartisan House bill that forces ByteDance, the Chinese company that has an ownership interest in TikTok, to sell that interest within the next six months or face a ban in the U.S.
Earlier this week, Trump came out against the bill, telling his supporters that banning TikTok in the U.S. would only empower Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whom he called the “enemy of the people.”
Previously, Trump had advocated for banning TikTok and signed an executive order barring U.S. companies from completing transactions with ByteDance during his presidency.
Greene told Raju that she has never spoken to Trump about the bill and that her decision were based on her own conclusions, adding, “it doesn’t mean we’re all robots.”
RAJU: How much how much did Donald Trump’s opposition weigh in on you?
GREENE: I haven’t spoken to Donald Trump about the bill. These were my own conclusions. And I made the vote based on my own conclusions. And by reading the bill myself, you know, he has his, his opinion on the bill and he can voice it. So it doesn’t mean that we’re all robots where we make our own decisions. And mine was a vote no on this bill based on everything I just told you.
Meanwhile, Mace responded that she’s been against the bill “from the very beginning,” citing her libertarian beliefs in a limited government.
RAJU: Was it because of Trump’s opposition? Is that why you opposed?
MACE: I’ve been against this from the very beginning. Before anyone else weighed in, I was against — it’s the libertarian in me. It’s not the role of government to ban apps from the App Store. Nowhere in our constitution does it say that.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
