The Democratic presidential ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine expressed concern Sunday over the AT&T deal to purchase Time Warner.
Brian Fallon, Clinton’s campaign spokesmen, said that while there are “a number of questions and concerns” regarding the merger, “there’s still a lot of information that needs to come out before any conclusions should be reached,” according to Reuters.
{mosads}AT&T has reached a deal to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion. The merger would make AT&T the owner of media companies including CNN and HBO.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Kaine said he shared the concerns voiced by critics of the merger, including GOP nominee Donald Trump.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of them. Generally pro competition. And less concentration I think is generally helpful, especially in the media,” he said.
“But this has just been announced, and I haven’t had a chance to dig into the details. But those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking.”
Trump’s campaign used the merger announcement on Sunday to attack Clinton and further push its accusation that media conglomerates have “gained enormous control over our information, intrude into our personal lives, and in this election, are attempting to unduly influence America’s political process.”
Trump’s senior economic adviser, Peter Navarro, said in a statement that the GOP nominee would “break up the new media conglomerate oligopolies” if elected to the White House.
It also labeled Clinton “the official candidate of the multinational ruling elite.”