Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. I'd like to welcome our global Bloomberg television and radio audiences. I'm joined in conversation by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, live from Capitol Hill. Senator, thank you very much for being here. You are leading a subcommittee hearing today titled Continuing a
Bipartisan Path Forward for Antitrust Enforcement and Reform. And I do wonder, in what will become January, a Republican control of Congress and Billa versus and White House, what that bipartisan path actually looks like.
Okay, well, first of all, thanks for having me on, Kayley. It's great to be on. And I think what you've seen in this area of antitrust, you've seen some broad bipartisan agreement on a number of these cases. Right. For instance, the Google case started under the Trump administration, the first Trump administration, as did the Facebook case that was at the FTC. Google was at the Justice Department. Then it
proceeded through the Biden administration. Biden administration also brought some major cases, for instance against Ticketmaster and other companies, and so you've seen a more aggressive anti trust enforcement over the last few years now, you have a new appointees going in place, and at least one of them I have heard the belief is over at the Justice Department with some former Democratic anti trust enforcers that she knows
what she's doing. I'm looking forward to meeting with her, Gail Slater, and I'm hoping that we will continue those cases. I love competition, Okay, I like capitalism. That's why I'm for anti trust enforcement.
Well, you've mentioned Gail Slater. What about Andrew Ferguson. Do you think he loves the issue of competition in the same way that you do. Do you trust that the FTC will be in good hands under his leadership?
You know, I am looking forward to meeting with him. Interestingly enough, we do not confirm that position because he was already on the commission. There is a new member that is being appointed on the Republican side. I'll note that he also he wrote a piece on the breakup of Ticketmaster in which he favored that. So I just think with anti trust because at its core, it is about competition, and it's been laggered for many decades, and as a result, we're seeing more and more consolidation. It
isn't that big companies are bad. It's that sometimes when you have no competition, then you start getting less innovation, more high prices, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm actually really excited about this. Center Lee and I are doing this together. This hearing. Sena Grassley and I have passed our bill together, and I think you're going to continue
to see interest in tech. Fact, Center Cruise and I did a joint interview this morning and a bill that we have gotten through the Senate on taking online porn off the Internet. Different than anti trust, However, you're just going to continue to see bipartisan and work on tech.
Well, I'm glad that you have brought up the Take It Down Act, which you co sponsored with Senator Cruz. Is that trying to tackle symptoms of an underlying disease rather than the disease itself. And the disease I'm referring to here is unregulated artificial intelligence.
Thanks, I really would like to put in some rules of the road on AI. And this bill is actually broader than just AI pornographic issue pictures. It's actually also real pictures as well as AI created ones. We're now seeing one in twelve Americans saying that they have been a victim or no, someone that's a victim of this. We've had twenty suicides in one year of young kids. Twenty suicides because someone a girlfriend, boyfriend, someone they knew
put up their photo. They were embarrassed that their friends and their family would know, and they killed themselves. These are FBI statistics. So Senator Cruse and I came together to build us two things. One make it clearly a crime to use pornographic imagery of someone else, whether it's AI created or real. And then number two, that the platforms have to take it down. That's why it's called
the Take It Down Act. They take down other violations of intellectual property and the fact that people can be abused in this way to the point of committing suicide. And in one case that I know of, Senator Cruz's case, he actually had a call Snapchat to get the image down after months of this victim from his state dealing with it. That's just wrong.
Senator, I'd like to ask you about another one of your colleagues, your fellow Democrats, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote a letter we understand, to President elect Donald Trump asking for firm conflict of interest rules to be put into place. Related to Elon Musk, who, of course has been tapped to co lead this new Department of Government Efficiency, have you had any conversations with Senator Warren about that, or at the very least you share in that sentiment.
Now, I haven't seen this letter, but I will say that I believe that we need con inflictive interest rules in place for people who are making major decisions in the government. That is what our people have done voluntarily for years now. And you have a number of very
wealthy people going into the Trump administration. There's been wealthy people as well under democratic administration, but you have a number of them coming in and we need the conflict rules in force, and we need to know that the decisions they are making are not for their own interest but for the interests of the American people. And I would hope that President elect Trump agrees.
Finally, President Elect Trump yesterday met with the CEO of TikTok, Show Chew at mar A Lago, after saying in a news conference Senator that he is a warm spot in his heart for TikTok. When asked if you would like to see the ban go through or will try to stop it. Given some of the issues we have already discussed around technology in particular and what is propagated on these platforms, what is your view about whether that band should be enforced come January.
Of course, out of Congress with strong bipartisan support. And there are two avenues here. One is that they can follow the law and divest and find a buyer for the company, and the second is that they still are appealing to the Supreme Court. So my view has been that we should have rules of the road in place,
by the way, for all platforms. I have been way out there, as I think you know, in terms of getting not just pornography off the Internet, but other very very difficult things that are on there right now, and that we should have a better policing of that, and people should have the right to protect their own intellectual properties,
and also that we should have antitrust enforcement. You just can't have, say Google, with a ninety percent market share on the search engine and not have any competition and then allow them to self preference, as we see with Amazon and other companies their own products at the top.
That's why the NFIB, which is not a liberal organization, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, is strongly supporting the bill that I have with Senator Grassley, which simply put some rules in the road in place for competition on the Internet. All right.
Democratic Senator Amy Clobaschar of Minnesota joining us live from Capitol Hill on Bloomberg Television and Radio. Thank you so much.