WASHINGTON (OSV News) — President Donald Trump on Sept. 19 spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping as he seeks a deal to keep the social media giant TikTok operating in the U.S.
The same week in Washington, lawmakers and commentators continued to grapple with the aftermath of the Sept. 10 murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, the U.S. House passed its version of legislation to fund the government ahead of a looming shutdown and the Senate rejected it, and senators probed ongoing turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over vaccine policy.
— Trump seeks TiKTok deal despite ban
In a Sept. 19 post on his website Truth Social, Trump called the call with Xi “very productive.”
“We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” he said.
Bipartisan legislation signed into law by former President Joe Biden prohibited the app in the U.S. unless China reduced its ownership stake in the company’s U.S. assets to less than 20%.
At the time, congressional lawmakers said the app, which some estimates say is used by a third of U.S. adults, poses a potential threat to national security, as its parent company, ByteDance, is effectively controlled by the Chinese government.
That legislation — which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — allowed the president to give one 90-day reprieve to the social media company, but Trump has given four extensions, prompting legal questions about his authority to do so.
— Lawmakers, commentators grapple with Charlie Kirk killing
The U.S. House approved a resolution Sept. 19 to honor Kirk, who was killed Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem.
After his death, Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA received praise from his allies in conservative politics for his willingness to debate and his advocacy for their cause. However, in discussions about his legacy, his critics also pointed to his controversial political rhetoric on subjects including race, persons experiencing same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, and immigrants.
Amid the aftermath of Kirk’s death, ABC suspended broadcasts of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” over the comedian’s comments about Kirk.
“We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said in the comments at the center of the controversy.
Law enforcement officials have attributed the alleged shooter’s motive — in part — to his views on Kirk’s position on transgender issues.
However, the backdrop of the controversy was some of the nation’s largest television station groups, like Nexstar and Sinclair, saying they would not air the show in response to his remarks. Nexstar is in the midst of trying to acquire its rival Tegna in a deal that would require approval by the Federal Communications Commission.
The suspension also came after Brendan Carr, FCC chairman, appeared to threaten ABC with regulatory consequences over the comments.
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this — I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said on a podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Even some of Kimmel’s fiercest critics suggested the FCC overstepped.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on a Sept. 19 episode of his podcast that he was “thrilled” Kimmel was off the air, but called Carr’s actions “dangerous as hell.”
“If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives,” Cruz said.
Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other administration officials are scheduled to speak at a Sept. 21 memorial service for Kirk in Arizona.
— House passes funding bill
The U.S. House on Sept. 19 passed its version of a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, that would fund the federal government until just before Thanksgiving, but the legislation was then rejected by the U.S. Senate, leaving a path to avoid a shutdown uncertain.
Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, their majorities are slim. They can afford to lose just a few of their members in the House without any Democratic support, and generally must garner some Democratic support in the Senate to pass the upper chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Senate Democrats are seeking changes to the GOP-led bill, such as reducing previous Medicaid cuts.
A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass a budget or if that budget is not signed into law by the president. Some types of essential government services are exempt, including Social Security payments to seniors. But many other functions of government are suspended during shutdowns, such as paychecks for government workers, including members of the armed services.
Unless lawmakers reach an agreement by Oct. 1, the federal government will shut down until they do.
Both the U.S. bishops and Catholic entities that advocate for, or work with, people who are poor and vulnerable in the U.S. have generally cautioned against government shutdowns.
— Senators probe turmoil at CDC over vaccine policy
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Senate health committee, as well as other senators on that committee, questioned Sept. 17 the reliability of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,–whose members recommend vaccination policy to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–after Susan Monarez, the now-former CDC director,
Monarez–who fired less than one month after she was sworn in, after she clashed with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines, over policy governing them–told the committee Kennedy pushed her to commit to Kennedy asked her to commit to approving changes to the child vaccine schedule before reviewing scientific evidence or knowing what changes would be made, and to fire CDC officials responsible for vaccine policy.
Kennedy previously disputed Monarez’s account in a combative hearing earlier in September, suggesting she was lying, a claim she denied.
Several other officials at the CDC resigned in similar protest.
— New study on drug trafficking finds it is primarily a domestic issue
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, issued a new study Sept. 16 that found U.S. citizens were behind the vast majority of U.S. drug trafficking convictions, which it argued called into question arguments that the trend is driven by migrants.
U.S. citizens made up 78% of offenders — 9,362 out of 12,004 convictions nationwide — the authors said.
“In other words, Americans dominate all drug trafficking convictions, not just fentanyl,” it said. “The idea that illegal immigrants are the primary drivers of the problem simply doesn’t match reality; US citizens remain the clear majority of those convicted of drug trafficking.”
The Trump administration has cited illegal drugs as one of the issues it is seeking to prevent through its immigration enforcement actions. In an April 29 statement marking the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, the Department of Homeland Security said U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard “seized nearly 232,000 pounds of fentanyl and other illicit drugs — stopping them from ever reaching American communities.”
But the study argued American citizen traffickers largely drive the trend, in part because they are “subject to less scrutiny at ports than individuals without citizenship.”
“These findings challenge the idea that fentanyl smuggling is mostly foreign-driven; the government’s own data show that US citizens are the primary traffickers,” the study said.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
