There has been speculation in Washington for months over the future of Lina Khan, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission and the face of the Biden administration’s movement against monopoly power. In an effort to overturn decades of antitrust norms that Mr. Khan has accused of failing to rein in the extreme concentration of corporate power, his administration will regularly scrutinize large acquisitions that Mr. Khan’s predecessors have traditionally ignored. and forced companies like Lockheed Martin and Nvidia to abandon multibillion-dollar deals in court.
Mr. Khan’s opponents, who are often described as legal “prodigies” or “prodigies” despite always being “young,” include some well-known supporters of the Democratic Party. This includes many influential investors and CEOs. These are billionaires with ties to companies that have been under FTC scrutiny for years.
Donors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and media mogul Barry Diller, have publicly urged Kamala Harris to replace Khan if he wins in November. The move is likely to spell disaster for President Joe Biden’s antitrust revolution.
Mr. Diller, meanwhile, publicly lambasted Ms. Khan as a “drug” on state television in July, a comment he later retracted, calling her “smart” but “disrupting a sensible business combination.” is. To the anger of many of Khan’s supporters, the Harris campaign has remained silent about her future.
Neither the Harris campaign nor the FTC responded to requests for comment. Mr. Diller did not immediately respond. Mr. Hoffman declined to comment.
According to the latest poll, about 80% of Democrats think the government should do more to fight corporate monopolies, while just 3% say the government should do less. Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Democrats feel that lobbyists and business executives have too much power over the government.
The same poll commissioned by the Tech Oversight Project found that more than three-quarters of Democrats feel that Big Tech exercises monopoly power to the detriment of consumers and small businesses. . Just 7% said their companies should not be affected as they continue to innovate.
“Democratic voters want to build on the Biden-Harris administration’s track record of protecting competition, holding monopolies accountable for breaking the law, and lowering the cost of living for families,” Khan said. Supporting project executive director Sasha Howarth said: “Natural Favorite” will continue this campaign.
There are strong signs that billionaires are holding their breath over Khan’s ouster, perhaps due in part to polls like these. Last month, the Democratic Party adopted a platform praising Mr. Khan’s crackdown on “corporate greed” while calling for further investigation into the “potentially harmful effects of corporate consolidation” at Big Pharma and the media industry as a whole. Mr. Khan did not speak at the convention, but the party’s pledge to rid the United States of “monopolies that crush workers, small businesses, and startups” is perhaps even more powerful than the pro-business Biden administration. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Khan supporters, alarmed that Ms. Harris has yet to rally to the legal star’s side, have criticized Ms. Harris this month while lampooning Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Diller, some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors. They set up a mock website that labeled it “Bad for Billionaires.” “Lina Khan must be fired,” the page declares, “so we can continue our unchecked profiteering!”
