One of Vice President Kamala Harris' first fights this January, should she win the 2024 presidential election, will likely be over what to do with Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan, reported Axios.
Khan, whose term expired Sept. 25, will remain in her role until a successor is sworn in.
Many tech executives have been critical of her, including influential Democratic Party donors like LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman, IAC chairman Barry Diller, and investor Mark Cuban.
But some progressives are in her corner, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Hoffman in July said Khan is "a person who is not helping America," adding that "antitrust is fine" but that "waging war is not." And Diller has said he would lobby a Harris administration to drop Khan and called her a "dope," for which he later apologized.
Cuban told Semafor last week that "if it were me, I wouldn't" keep Khan next year and criticized her for taking on technology firms over artificial intelligence.
"The bigger picture is she's hurting more than she's helping," Cuban said.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez rebuked Cuban for his comments.
"By taking on corporate greed & illegal monopolies, Lina is doing an exceptional job preventing large corporations from ripping-off consumers & exploiting workers," Sanders wrote on X, thanking Khan "for what you are doing."
"Let me make this clear, since billionaires have been trying to play footsie with the ticket: Anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl. And that is a promise," Ocasio-Cortez said in her post. "She proves this admin fights for working people. It would be terrible leadership to remove her."
Harris' economic adviser has advocated to keep Khan on, reported NOTUS.