Kara Swisher Rails Against Montana Officials for Banning TikTok: ‘Why Don’t You Get Back to Abusing Trans People?’

Kara Swisher bashed government officials in Montana over their ban of TikTok which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

The conversation took place on the Monday edition of Swisher’s podcast, On With Kara Swisher, where the eponymous host and her executive producer, Nayeema Raza, discussed the ban — which was passed last Wednesday.

“Montana led by the governor who likes to body slam reporters — decided that they were banning TikTok,” Swisher said referencing Republican Governor Greg Gianforte who infamously body slammed a reporter in 2017 when he was running for a House seat.

“It’s a ridiculous virtue signaling of the right to do this because states have no business dealing with this. This is a national security issue. They have to prove it. The federal government — is working on this, but having a state do it just mucks up what they’re trying to do in a legal way. You know, I was like, why don’t you get back to abusing trans people — like the six trans people who are in Montana,” Swisher said.

“Those are our choices. Banning abortion, banning trans rights, or banning TikTok. TikTok,” Raza said.

“I was like, why don’t you get to like governing the state, which has a lot of real issues and this is just peacocking and just ridiculous and stupid,” Swisher said.

Swisher called the ban, which plans to hold companies like Apple and Google accountable if the app is available to download in the state, “completely unenforceable.”

“Such a waste of legislative time. It’s literally, why are they paying their salaries there if this is what they spend their time doing? It’s completely ridiculous,” Swisher said clarifying that she isn’t necessarily against a ban on the app, but prefers a legal way of going about it. Swisher called the move purely a “political thing.”

“Republicans are always the hardest on China. It’s always interesting when you see Marco Rubio just so concerned for Uyghur rights, but not concerned for the rights of women in his state,” Raza said.

“Aren’t they full of ironies? I just feel like this is just not their business and they need to move on to the business of Montana. Which I don’t know. There’s lots of things I’m sure that people in Montana wanna focus on and it’s not gonna work and it’s gonna make everything a mess,” Swisher added.

Listen above via On With Kara Swisher.