AOC to Mark Cuban and other Kamala Harris backers: Stay away from FTC chair Lina Khan

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban listens as Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. - Photo: Jeff Swensen (Getty Images)
Entrepreneur Mark Cuban listens as Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. - Photo: Jeff Swensen (Getty Images)

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is hitting back at the slew of Democratic billionaires calling for a potential Kamala Harris Administration to fire the sitting chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“Let me make this clear, since billionaires have been trying to play footsie with the ticket,” the New York Democrat wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “Anyone goes near [FTC Chair] Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl. And that is a promise.”

Her comments came after billionaire investor Mark Cuban criticized Khan during an event on Tuesday, telling Semafor that “If it were me, I wouldn’t” keep her on as a commissioner next year. Cuban, who founded CostPlusDrugs in 2022, said he supported Khan’s efforts to regulate the pharmaceutical industry but thinks “she’s hurting more than she’s helping” by going after artificial intelligence firms.

“This is about AI. It’s a zero sum race for global dominance,” Cuban added later on Tuesday on social media. “If we lose, the consequences are far more than economic.”

Cuban is joined in his criticism of Khan by several other major Democratic donors backing Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid.

LinkedIn (MSFT) co-founder Reid Hoffman in July said Khan is “a person who is not helping America,” adding that “antitrust is fine” but that “waging war is not.” IAC (IAC) Chairman Barry Diller has said he would lobby a Harris Administration to drop Khan; his company is reportedly facing multiple investigations from the FTC.

“She’s not a rational human being,” Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said at a conference in June. “She doesn’t understand business; she shouldn’t be in that role.”

The FTC chair has taken an aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, which has been welcomed by some politicians but won scorn from corporations and investors. Under Khan, the FTC has taken legal action against several prominent mergers, such as Microsoft’s $69 billion deal with Activision Blizzard and Kroger’s (KR) $25 billion plan to buy Albertsons (ACI), and it has released a sweeping, 129-page report criticizing some of the largest social media and streaming platforms.

“[Mark Cuban] is wrong. Lina Khan is the best FTC Chair in modern history,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent, wrote Tuesday. “By taking on corporate greed & illegal monopolies, Lina is doing an exceptional job preventing large corporations from ripping-off consumers & exploiting workers.”

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