Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), is defending Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, considered the nation’s leading trust-buster, against Vice President Kamala Harris’s billionaire donors who have demanded her firing.
A handful of billionaires backing Harris have made public calls for her to fire Khan as FTC chair — a move Harris is reportedly considering. Those billionaires are involved with companies that the FTC is probing for a host of issues.
Khan is “waging war on American business,” billionaire Reid Hoffman alleged after bundling millions for Harris in the presidential race. Hoffman sits on Microsoft’s board and is the co-founder of artificial intelligence startup Inflection. The FTC is currently investigating Microsoft’s deal with Inflection.
Likewise, billionaire Barry Diller has called Khan “a dope” and has demanded that Harris fire her. Diller eventually walked back that remark. The FTC is also investigating his company, IAC Inc.
During an interview with CBS News, Vance defended Khan against Harris’s powerful donors.
“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.
“I don’t want Google or a billionaire that controls Google that’s in bed with China to be able to censor American information, and that’s exactly what they’ve done,” he continued.
Vance and other Republicans — like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — have been dubbed “Khanservative Republicans” by the Wall Street Journal for their support of Khan’s record as FTC chair.
“I look at Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job,” Vance previously said.
Harris, in recent weeks, has become the darling of Wall Street brokers who see her candidacy as a return to the status quo that reigned in Washington, DC, for decades. Harris is also backed by billionaire George Soros and his son, Alex Soros.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
