TikTok hires firm with close Biden ties as Chinese company ramps up lobbying
Jerry Dunleavy
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TikTok has hired a consulting firm with close ties to President Joe Biden’s White House as the Chinese government-linked company has ramped up its lobbying efforts amid largely Republican-led efforts to ban the social media app.
SKDK, a political consulting and public affairs agency whose founder is a top Biden adviser and whose former employees fill out key roles across the Biden administration, was reportedly hired by TikTok in the past few months, according to Politico. The news came as the heads of the top U.S. intelligence agencies united last week in warning about the national security threat posed by China-owned TikTok.
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SKDK founding partner Anita Dunn was named a Biden senior adviser in May 2022, with the White House announcing she would “assist in advancing the President’s policy and communications objectives.” Dunn, who has been close to Biden for many years, had also briefly worked in the Biden White House early in his presidency and played a big role in his 2020 presidential campaign.
An anonymous source close to Dunn had told the Washington Post in March 2022 that “neither SKDK nor Dunn lobby or represent any clients on matters before the federal government.”
Dunn’s husband, longtime Democratic political fixture and three-decade Perkins Coie law firm veteran Bob Bauer, was also hired by Biden late last year to serve as personal attorney to the president and to run point on his response to his burgeoning classified documents saga.
There are other SKDK veterans currently serving in the Biden White House, including Kate Berner and Herbie Ziskend, who are both deputy White House communications directors.
Multiple other former SKDK employees also hold important jobs in the Biden administration, including Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh, Interior Department press secretary Tyler Cherry, assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Public Affairs Adam Hodge, and Energy Department deputy chief of staff Bridget Bartol.
SKDK congratulated Biden on his presidential election victory in November 2020, noting the firm was “especially proud of the role our partner Anita Dunn played in serving as senior adviser and strategist” for the race. CNBC reported that Democratic campaigns paid SKDK more than $65 million during the 2020 election cycle, including more than $2 million paid to the firm by the Biden campaign.
The firm announced in November that it had hired Justin Goodman, a longtime communications director for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to be an executive vice president for the firm’s public affairs practice in the nation’s capital.
TikTok has put together a large lobbying team made up of onetime lawmakers and congressional staffers from both parties to try to shield the company as it comes under increased scrutiny. Jamal Brown, who served as the Biden Defense Department’s deputy press secretary from February 2021 to February 2022, joined TikTok in late 2022 to run its policy communications in the Americas.
TikTok has thrived during the two-plus years of President Joe Biden’s presidency after unsuccessful efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to crack down on the app.
Biden officials emphasize a national security review of the app is underway. The National Security Council said last summer that a separate review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States “is ongoing.”
TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance combined to spend more than $1 million on lobbying during the fourth quarter of 2022 as Republicans push the Biden administration to crack down on TikTok over data privacy and national security concerns.
ByteDance spent $1.11 million on lobbying from October to December, and TikTok itself reported spending another $110,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022 through the Crossroads Strategies advocacy firm.
ByteDance and TikTok spent a combined $550,000 on lobbying in 2019, $3.92 million in 2020, $6.54 million in 2021, and $5.91 million in 2022.
TikTok paid Crossroads Strategies to lobby the House, Senate, and Executive Office of the President last year.
ByteDance itself reported spending $990,000 on lobbying the House, Senate, the White House, and the Pentagon late last year.
The Chinese parent company also paid Mehlman Consulting $80,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022 to lobby Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Commerce Department. ByteDance paid K&L Gates another $40,000 to lobby the House and Senate.
A Washington Examiner review last year found ByteDance and TikTok paid an army of lobbyists, including former Sens. Trent Lott (R-MS) and John Breaux (D-LA) and former Reps. Jeff Denham (R-CA) and Barton Gordon (D-TN).
TikTok’s lobbying shop also includes roughly three dozen former congressional staffers almost evenly split between the parties, including those who worked for Schumer, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
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TikTok lobbyists also include staffers for former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), former Senate Majority Leaders Harry Reid (D-NV) and Bill Frist (R-TN), and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).
Also among the ByteDance lobbyists, registered through LGL Partners, is David Urban, former senior adviser for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.