Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan, America's leading anti-monopoly advocate, is defending herself against Vice President Kamala Harris' billionaire donors who have called for her removal.
During the period 60 min Interview In an interview with Lesley Stahl, Khan was asked about public and private comments from Harris' major donors on Wall Street and at big tech companies calling on the vice president to fire her.
“Some of her biggest donors want you out. They want you out of the spotlight. And they're not just saying it in private, they're saying it on TV,” Staal said, to which Khan responded:
You see, as you know, My focus is not on listening to what CEOs are saying on TV. As we all know, in this type of work it's important to stay focused and block out the noise. [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News reported, billionaires Reid Hoffman and Barry Diller urged Harris to publicly oppose Khan and promise to fire him if he beat former President Donald Trump in November.
Diller's company, IAC, is under investigation by the FTC, as is Microsoft's dealings with artificial intelligence startup Inflection Inc. Hoffman is a director of Microsoft and a co-founder of Inflection Inc.
Similarly, Harris' Wall Street donors are pressuring her to fire Khan.
“Two donors close to the Harris campaign said the case against Khan is that the FTC's efforts to block the merger are hurting the economy,” Bloomberg reported this month. “The thinking is that if Harris wants to portray herself as pro-growth and pro-business, as she and her surrogates have tried to do, she needs to replace Khan, the people said.”
Harris has yet to take a public stance on Khan or the larger issue of growing monopoly power in the American economy as a small number of multinational companies gain increasing market share.
Meanwhile, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump's running mate, defended Khan.
“To be clear, I don't agree with Lina Khan on all of her issues, but I think her willingness to go after some of the big tech companies that have a monopoly on what we can say in our country is very smart,” Vance said.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
