White House senior adviser Anita Dunn was blasted online after it was revealed she encouraged outside Democratic operatives to use TikTok to promote President Biden’s State of the Union speech as her old firm was hired by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked company to avoid a federal ban.
According to a Thursday report from Politico, Dunn urged Democratic operatives ahead of Biden’s February speech to hop on TikTok and promote the event during a “Women’s Community Engagement Update” call hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Dunn reportedly told people on the call that they wanted to tout the administration’s accomplishments online and that, while the White House couldn’t use TikTok, other Biden surrogates on the CCP-linked social media platform should share parts of Biden’s speech.
TOP WH ADVISER ANITA DUNN DODGING PUBLIC ETHICS DISCLOSURE
Under White House ethics policy, Dunn is not permitted from engaging in matters involving the firm she founded.
TikTok hired SKDK to lobby against a looming federal ban of the CCP-linked app.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Politico that there wasn’t anything in Dunn’s remarks that were outside what the administration has stated openly “for years: that we work with outside supporters to spread our message on the major social media platforms, including TikTok.”
Several Twitter users gave strong rebukes to the news broken by Politico White House reporter Daniel Lippman on Thursday revealing Dunn’s work to promote Biden’s speech on the app. Users pointed out that TikTok had hired SKDK — which Dunn helped found — as lawmakers increased calls to ban the app.
“Great scoop from [Lippman] about how initially [SKDK] recognized the threat TikTok posed to the US then flip flopped — wonder how much communist China paid them to sell out US national security,” former White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted.
“Anita Dunn making a run at [Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm] for most openly corrupt member of the Biden team,” GOP communicator Matt Whitlock quipped on Twitter.
“Bought and paid for by the CCP,” RedState editor Stephen Miller wrote.
Other Twitter users did not hold back with their thoughts on the revelations.
The top White House adviser has faced major scrutiny for what critics view as shady moves during her work in the Biden administration.
Dunn has been able to skirt publicly disclosing her personal finances and business interests, unlike other presidential appointees, due to an ethics loophole.
Federal law requires that highly-involved presidential appointees publicly disclose their finances, but some appointees — known as special government employees — can forgo disclosing their finances if they serve in their role for less than 130 workdays and their salary is $132,500 or below.
Between Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 and Aug. 5, 2021, there were 198 calendar days. According to the U.S. Federal Labor Relations Authority, any work “done on any given day means that day is counted as a work day,” including weekends.
If Dunn didn’t work any of those weekends, which appears to be unlikely due to her role as a senior adviser working on infrastructure and other top White House priorities, Dunn would have still worked 142 days. Excluding federal holidays, Dunn would have likely worked a minimum of 137 days.
