Arizona Senator Mark Kelly on TikTok, Laken Riley Act, and President-Elect Trump’s Cabinet picks

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation on Sunday about the national security law banning TikTok.

According to TikTok's attorney, the app will go dark in the United States on Sunday, January 19 "unless the Supreme Court intervenes and stops this national security law from taking effect, or delays it, as Mr. Trump has asked the court to do."

When asked what he thinks is going to happen, Kelly said:

"Based on the oral argument in the case two days ago, it looks like the Supreme Court...I mean, I don't really want to speculate, but it does look like they're going to uphold the law that we passed. So, I think on the 19th, so one day before the inauguration, you know, TikTok on our systems, on our servers, becomes something that's now been banned by Congress. So I imagine there's going to be a disruption in the service here, you know, starting on the 19th. I know this is controversial. I know there are folks out there that earn a living, you know, on TikTok, but it has a national security risk to it. You know, one is the data, one of the risks. The thing that I'm more concerned about is their ability to manipulate the population of the United States, especially in time of a conflict. So it was the right decision. I voted for it. And it looks like the Supreme Court is going to uphold the legislation that we passed."

During the interview, Brennan and Kelly talked about the Laken Riley Act, which would require federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes rather than releasing them on parole.

Brennan said the bill was introduced last Congress, but didn't go anywhere, prompting her to ask if Democrats were wrong to not take it up, and if it was election year politics that made them concerned about bringing it forward, to which Kelly said:

"In the last year, we've been working with Republicans on bipartisan border security legislation with the hope of getting that passed and then moving on to comprehensive immigration reform. I think we could do that. I think there's a lot of, you know, there's, you know, there's an effort, I think, that's going to continue. You know, right now, this is certainly bipartisan. I voted for cloture on the, you know, motion to start talking about it. And ultimately, I'll vote to pass it."

Brennan and Kelly then talked about the latter preparing to question President-Elect Donald Trump's picks for top defense and intelligence jobs, including Pete Hegseth.

Brennan said many senators are "asking for more information on Pete Hegseth," prompting her to ask Kelly if he has any information from a ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, which Kelly is a member of, that he will "get access or get any information from that FBI background check," to which Kelly responded saying:

"There is not a job that's more serious and more critical to our national security than Secretary of Defense, and we need a qualified individual in that job, and he just does not seem to have the qualifications. And then on top of that, you look at his personal conduct, especially when he was managing Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans of America. You know, these two organizations were financially mismanaged. There was reports of being intoxicated on the job, and creating an environment, you know, where there was, you know, some issues with, you know, sexual harassment. So I think it's in the nominee, Mr. Hegseth's best interest if he wants to be confirmed for this job, for us to have all the information. You know, the information from these organizations, but also the FBI background check. Right now, as you say, the chairman and the ranking member are going to get it. That's an agreement with the White House, but there has been exceptions made in the past for certain nominees. This, clearly, because it is bipartisan...you know, across the aisle, folks want to see the FBI background check. I think we should get an opportunity to take a look at it."

Talks then came to Trump's other Cabinet pick, Tulsi Gabbard. Brennan said Kelly's colleague, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), was on Fox News Sunday, saying she "privately met Gabbard" and asked about her 2017 trip to Syria "that came in the wake of a chemical weapons attack carried out by dictator Bashar Al-Assad against civilians."

That's when Gabbard told Capito that "she didn't even know she was going to Syria, that she intended to go to Lebanon on the scheduled visit and ended up in Syria," prompting Brennan to ask Kelly if that was a credible answer.

"I talked to Congresswoman Gabbard this week, met with her in my office. We talked about the trip to Syria. She didn't tell me that part. I mean, I think it's kind of unusual that you wind up in one place, it wasn't part of the plan. But what concerns me more, especially about that trip is...it was common knowledge that Assad was gassing the civilian population, using chemical weapons against the population, multiple times. And she didn't argue about those, but she took the time and the effort to make a case that there were two cases, and she used, you know, experts that were not critical...credible to try to prove that he was not using chemical weapons in those two instances. And I have a hard time understanding why you would want to do that, to use your political capital to try to prove something when there are multiple cases. And you know, on top of that, when you look at, you know, what's in Russia with misinformation, she does seem to have a predilection for misinformation...and for not having presenting a case that isn't strong, and not listening to the intelligence community."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Kelly, click here.