‘This is corruption’: Warren blasts Zuckerberg’s secret dinner with Trump
November 21, 2019
Sen. Elizabeth Warren hammered Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for attending a previously undisclosed dinner with President Donald Trump at the White House, accusing the tech mogul's company of cozying up to the administration as it faces mounting pressure over its competitive practices from federal regulators.
“Amid antitrust scrutiny, Facebook is going on a charm offensive with Republican lawmakers,” Warren tweeted from her campaign account. “And now, Mark Zuckerberg and one of Facebook's board members — a major Trump donor — had a secret dinner with Trump. This is corruption, plain and simple.”
NBC News reported Wednesday that Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel — a Facebook board member and one of Trump’s most prominent allies in the tech sector — broke bread with Trump and first lady Melania Trump during a recent Washington swing.
“As is normal for a CEO of a major U.S. company, Mark accepted an invitation to have dinner with the President and First Lady at the White House,” a Facebook spokesperson said, confirming the gathering.
It’s Zuckerberg's latest closed-door meeting with a Washington leader in recent months, a series of sessions that arrives as the Silicon Valley giant faces political headwinds from regulators and lawmakers alike. In September, Zuckerberg quietly held several meetings and at least one dinner with lawmakers, many of them prominent Republicans, to discuss concerns about the company’s conduct.
Warren, a 2020 presidential contender, has been an outspoken campaign trail critic of Facebook, calling for federal regulators to break up the company.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
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