Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, considered the nation’s leading anti-monopolist, is defending herself against Vice President Kamala Harris’s billionaire donors who have demanded her firing.
During a 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl, Kahn was asked about the comments publicly and privately made by Harris’s top donors on Wall Street and in Big Tech wherein they are demanding the vice president fire her.
“Some of her biggest donors are people who want her to get rid of you. They want you off the scene. And they’re not just saying it privately, they’re going on television,” Stahl said, to which Khan responded:
Look, you know, my focus is not listening to what CEOs are saying on TV. You know, it’s important in these jobs to stay focused and block out a lot of the noise. [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News has reported, billionaires Reid Hoffman and Barry Diller have urged Harris to publicly oppose Khan and promise to fire her should she win in November against former President Donald Trump.
Diller’s company, IAC, Inc., is being investigated by the FTC as is a deal between Microsoft and artificial intelligence startup Inflection. Hoffman sits on the Microsoft board and is the cofounder of Inflection.
Similarly, Harris’s Wall Street donors have pushed her to commit to firing Khan.
“Two donors close to Harris’ campaign said the argument being presented against Khan is that the FTC’s efforts to hold up mergers are hurting the economy,” Bloomberg reported this month. “The idea is that if Harris wants to project herself as pro-growth and pro-business — as she and surrogates have sought to do — Khan will need to be replaced, the people said.”
Harris has yet to take any public position on Khan as well as the larger issue of growing monopoly power in the American economy where a handful of multinational corporations increase their market share.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) has defended Khan.
“I don’t agree with Lina Khan on every issue, to be clear, but I think that she’s been very smart about trying to go after some of these big tech companies that monopolize what we’re allowed to say in our own country,” Vance said.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
