Dem Donors Want Harris to Sack FTC Chair Lina Kahn, Who Sued MGM

Posted on: September 9, 2024, 04:31h. 

Last updated on: September 10, 2024, 09:42h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Major Democratic party donors in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street want Vice President Kamala Harris to fire Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Lina Khan should Harris win this year’s presidential election.

FTC
FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan. Should she win the presidency, some Democrat donors with ties to the gaming industry want Vice President Kamala Harris to fire Kahn. (Image: CNN)

Well-heeled donors to the Harris campaign have recently increased pressure on Harris to sack Kahn and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler should she win the White House.

Earlier this year, the FTC announced an investigation into MGM Resorts International’s (NYSE: MGM) response to the September 2023 cyberattack that temporarily crippled the casino company’s domestic operations.

That touched off a spate of legal maneuvering between the commission and the gaming company. In June, the Bellagio operator sued the FTC, demanding Kahn recuse herself from the investigation because she and several staffers were guests of an MGM Las Vegas property during the time of the cyberintrusion.

Kahn hasn’t signaled that she’s considering recusal, and the legal wranglings between the FTC and MGM are ongoing.

Kahn was appointed by President Biden in 2021 and her term expires on September 25, meaning it’s likely to be renewed so that the top spot at the FTC isn’t vacant until after the election. Should Kahn commit to a second term, that means unless she is fired by Harris — assuming the vice president wins the election — the FTC chair would occupy that position for a significant portion of Harris’s first term as president.

MGM Director Barry Diller Wants Kahn Gone

IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IAC) Chairman Barry Diller is among the Democrat donors reportedly leaning on Harris and her campaign to remove Kahn. In a July interview with CNBC, Diller called Kahn “a dope” and said she’s against “almost anything” that helps business efficiently grow.

Though he walked back the snarky comment, it’s widely believed he still wants Harris, should she become president, to remove Kahn. It’s not clear if the FTC’s suit against MGM had any bearing on Diller’s comments, but he and IAC CEO Joey Levin are members of the gaming company’s board of directors.

Diller’s conglomerate is the largest MGM investor, controlling roughly 20% of the gaming company’s shares as of May. IAC initiated its MGM stake in August 2020 and added to it three months later.

Mark Cuban is No Fan of Treasury Secretary Gensler

SEC Chairman Gensler has been rumored to be a potential candidate for Treasury Secretary should Harris win the presidency, but that appears increasingly unlikely as some of the vice president’s wealthiest supporters increase pressure on her to fire him, too.

Those backers include Mark Cuban who, last year, sold majority control of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks to Dr. Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont. Adelson is the largest Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) shareholder and Dumont is president and chief operating officer (COO) of the casino giant.

Cuban has long said he wants to partner with Sands on bringing a casino hotel to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.