Kamala Harris would fire FTC chief Lina Khan if she wins White House, CNBC’s Jim Cramer says
Vice President Kamala Harris would get rid of Federal Trade Commission head Lina Khan if she were to defeat former President Donald Trump in the November election and succeed President Joe Biden, according to CNBC commentator Jim Cramer.
“I don’t have to go into Lina Khan anymore [because] everyone knows my views and there’s no need to reiterate,” Cramer, who once referred to her an “empty suit” and “one-woman wrecking crew for your stock portfolio,” said during Monday morning’s broadcast.
Cramer also predicted that if Harris ascends to the presidency following Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 race, she would also dismiss Jonathan Kanter, the assistant attorney general with the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
“I will say Jonathan Kanter, in the end…he goes,” Cramer said. “Khan goes.”
Under Khan, the FTC has scrutinized Amazon’s market practices. It has also filed suit against Facebook parent company Meta.
Khan’s FTC has also probed Google over its digital advertising business and search engine practices as well as Apple over its alleged anti-competitive practices related to its App Store.
“These people go,” the CNBC analyst said of Khan and Kanter, adding that a Harris presidency would promote “people who aren’t as negative about tech.”
Cramer said that Kanter and the Justice Department have been “antagonistic to the point of like making fun of Apple, saying ‘Look, your iPhone’s too good. We gotta stop that’.”
In March, the Justice Department announced a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the iPhone maker engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors, stifles innovation and keeps prices artificially high.
Apple called the lawsuit “wrong on the facts and the law” and said it “will vigorously defend against it.”
On CNBC, Cramer said he agreed with the statement that Harris’ candidacy was a “net positive for the markets and for American business.”
Cramer slammed Biden as “unsophisticated about the way business works” and “unsophisticated about the stock market by nature.”
He said that the president “picks people who have been historically bad for Wall Street.”
“You’ve got a person who’s from California” who is “mega-tech” and “understands California and who is not against tech,” Cramer said of Harris, who was a US senator and an attorney general before she was picked to be Biden’s running mate in 2020.
Cramer went on to say that “Biden has done everything in these agencies that he can to annoy and to go after tech.”
Cramer praised Harris as a “moderate” and noted that her brother-in-law, Tony West, was former general counsel at PepsiCo before taking up the same job at ridesharing app Uber
“You tell me if there’s someone who’s more sophisticated and knows more about business and the West Coast than her borther-in-law who would be an amazing adviser,” Cramer said.
The Post has sought comment from Harris, the FTC and the Justice Department.
