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Mitch McConnell backs House TikTok bill that could lead to ban
Washington — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday endorsed a bill that could lead to a ban of TikTok in the U.S. after its momentum slowed in the Senate following its whirlwind passage in the House last month.
“This is the matter that deserves Congress’ urgent attention, and I’ll support common sense bipartisan steps to take one of Beijing’s favorite tools of coercion and espionage off the table,” the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor, describing the platform as “a tool of surveillance and of propaganda.”
The legislation seeks to force its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months to maintain access to U.S. web-hosting services and app stores.
“Requiring the divestment of Beijing-influenced entities from TikTok would land squarely within established constitutional precedent,” McConnell said.
Critics of the bill have questioned the bill’s constitutionality given the government’s targeting of a single company and have also said it would violate Americans’ free speech rights by taking away a platform they use for expression.
The bill’s path in the Senate, which typically moves slower than the lower chamber, is unclear. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has been noncommittal about bringing it up for a vote, though he included TikTok legislation among his top priorities in a letter to Democrats last week.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell said Democrats on the panel were meeting Monday night to discuss next steps. After a classified briefing last month from national security officials, Cantwell said she was considering holding a hearing on the matter. She’s also indicated that the House bill could undergo changes or be scrapped.
“We’ll have a game plan on how to proceed after that,” the Washington Democrat said Monday.
Cantwell said committee members were also meeting this week with Schumer and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and has backed the House bill.
Alan He contributed reporting.
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Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”
Longtime ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale said on social media he has been diagnosed with cancer for a fourth time.
Vitale announced Friday that a biopsy of a lymph node in his neck showed cancer. He is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday.
“With all the (prayers) I have received & the loving support of my family, friends and ESPN colleagues, I will win this battle,” Vitale said on social media.
Chris Polk/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
The 85-year-old Vitale has previously been treated for melanoma and lymphoma. He also had six weeks of radiation treatments last year when tests revealed he had vocal cord cancer.
Vitale has been with ESPN since 1979, the year the network launched. The former coach called ESPN’s first college basketball broadcast. He’s also a longtime fundraiser for cancer research.
Vitale helped friend Jim Valvano to the stage at the 1993 ESPYs, where Valvano delivered his famous “Don’t give up” speech. Valvano died of adenocarcinoma less than two months later.
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