Apple CEO Tim Cook Meeting With Republican Lawmakers in Washington

Apple CEO Tim Cook this week traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with top Republican lawmakers, reports Bloomberg. Cook is said to be aiming to create ties with the GOP as it prepares to assume control of the House in the new year.

Cook has scheduled meetings with Ohio’s Kim Jordan, California’s Darrell Issa, and Washington’s Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Jordan and McMorris Rodgers will likely be involved with committees that are overseeing the tech industry, heading up the House Judiciary Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, respectively.

Apple is dealing with U.S. antitrust legislation that could result in major changes to the company’s App Store policies. There are five separate bipartisan bills that are being considered, and just this week, Twitter CEO Elon Musk spurred lawmaker interest in Apple with his claim that Apple has threatened to “withhold Twitter from its ‌App Store‌” and has stopped advertising on Twitter.

As Bloomberg points out, Cook’s meetings were scheduled weeks before Musk’s Twitter rant, but Twitter could be a topic of discussion. Jim Jordan, who Cook is meeting with, has publicly supported Musk, for example.

Cook will also meet with Republican Senator John Cornyn from Texas, Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich from New Mexico and Democratic Senator Brian Schatz from Hawaii as Apple aims to steer regulators away from ‌App Store‌ legislation and questions about the company’s device manufacturing in China.

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