(C) Common Dreams
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Opinion | Billionaire Donors Have It Out for This Legal Prodigy, but President Harris Will Need Her [1]
['Michelle Goldberg']
Date: 2024-08-23
Until about a week ago, a big question in Democratic politics was whether a potential President Kamala Harris would keep Lina Khan — the pathbreaking young lawyer loved by progressives and loathed by some of Harris’s billionaire donors — as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that enforces antimonopoly law.
Some wealthy Harris backers have called for Khan’s replacement, including the LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who donated $10 million to a Democratic super PAC this year. On the financial news network CNBC, Barry Diller, chair of IAC and Expedia Group, said he’d lobby Harris to get rid of Khan, whom he called a “dope.” He later apologized for the insult, but not the promise to use his influence against her.
Because Harris’s economic views seemed fuzzy and her ties to Silicon Valley are strong, some on the left worried she might give in to the pressure. Those fears were heightened when Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a close ally of the vice president, was asked on CNBC about jettisoning Khan, and suggested that Harris might break from President Biden’s aggressive approach to antitrust. “There are going to be different dynamics that are going to require different philosophies,” said Moore.
But it increasingly looks as if anti-Khan forces might be disappointed. As the broad outlines of Harris’s economic approach have emerged over the last week, it seems at least as populist as Biden’s.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/23/opinion/lina-khan-antitrust-harris.html
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