For months, there has been speculation in Washington about the future of Lina Khan, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission and face of the Biden administration’s crusade against monopoly power. In reversing decades of antitrust rules, accused by Khan of failing to curb extreme concentrations of corporate power, the administration has routinely examined major acquisitions traditionally ignored by Khan’s predecessors, forcing companies like Lockheed Martin and NVIDIA abandon multimillion-dollar agreements in court.
Opponents of Khan, who is often described as a “legal”child prodigy” either “prodigy“, although invariably as “young”—include a number of powerful investors and CEOs known as prominent supporters of the Democratic Party; billionaires with ties to companies that have long been under the FTC’s microscope.
The donors, who include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and media mogul Barry Diller, have openly urged Kamala Harris will replace Khan should she win in November, a move that would likely spell disaster for President Joe Biden’s antitrust revolution.
Diller, for his part, publicly criticized Khan in July, calling her “dumb” on national television, a comment he later retracted, calling her “intelligent” but “disruptive of sensible business combinations.” To the ire of many of Khan’s supporters, the Harris campaign has remained silent about her future.
Neither the Harris campaign nor the FTC responded to a request for comment. Diller did not immediately respond. Hoffman declined to comment.
About 80 percent of Democrats believe the government should do more to break up corporate monopolies, compared to just 3 percent who say it should do less, according to new survey. Meanwhile, nearly 90 percent of Democrats believe lobbyists and corporate 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 in ways that harm consumers and small businesses. Only 7 percent said companies should not face repercussions because they have continued to innovate.
“Democratic voters want to build on the Biden-Harris administration’s record of protecting competition, holding monopolies accountable for breaking the law, and lowering the cost of living for everyday families,” says Sacha Haworth, the project’s executive director, who favors Khan as the “natural favorite” to continue this campaign.
Due perhaps in part to polls like this one, there are strong signs that billionaires are losing their breath when it comes to Khan’s overthrow. Last month, the Democratic Party adopted a platform which celebrated Khan’s crackdown on “corporate greed,” while calling for more research into the “potentially damaging effects of corporate consolidation” on Big Pharma and the entire media industry. While Khan did not give speeches at the convention, the party’s promise to rid America of “monopolies that crush workers, small businesses, and startups” was fulfilled (perhaps even more forcefully) by Secretary of State Biden Trade, Gina Raimondo, an accomplished business advocate.
Khan supporters, alarmed that Harris has not yet joined the legal star’s side, created a mock website this month, calling her “Bad for billionaires” while lampooning some of the Democrats’ biggest donors, including Hoffman and Diller. “Lina Khan must be fired,” the page declares, “so we can continue our unlimited speculation!”