I've written many times about the great work FTC Commission Chair Lina Khan is doing in the anti-trust and anti-monopoly area. So you can imagine my shock when I read this in Matt Stoller's BIG newsletter this morning.

While the big push was happening to dump Biden, I said at the time I thought this was really about his policies -- specifically, the new trade, antitrust, and labor policies put in place over the last five years or so. When Kamala Harris took over the Democratic nomination from Joe Biden, it was inevitable the pressure to go back to business as usual would pick up. (Billionaire Reid Hoffman says he'd like Harris to replace Khan in the above clip. Oh, and by the way, here's a little something for your campaign!)

Now there's a Silicon Valley fundraising tour for Harris being planned by none other than… Reid Hoffman. Ok, so it’s pretty stunning for an oligarch like Hoffman, with a net worth of a couple billion dollars, to publicly make such a demand. So why is he doing it? One reason is that there’s a lot of money involved. As the Lever reported, Hoffman is on the board of Microsoft, which is right now being sued and investigated by the FTC. It’s a pretty good gig, if you get to fire the law enforcer investigating your misdeeds.

[...] Still, there’s another reason. Hoffman is a sophisticated operator who wants to be a kingmaker in politics. The money is real enough, but he’s likely leaking the fundraising tour as a means of forcing Harris to be seen to do his bidding. Hoffman wants Harris to get rid of Biden policies which protect workers through trade and antitrust so that big business can do what they want. And he’s going to supply the financing for Harris’ campaign if she does what she’s told.

It seems like the Harris campaign might be listening, despite Harris a few days ago hitting Trump over very similar arguments about taking money from oil titans and doing favors in return. Yesterday, the New York Times wrote a campaign story on the candidate’s links to big business. Here’s the key passage:

As vice president, Ms. Harris has voiced support for regulating artificial intelligence. But she has expressed skepticism of Ms. Khan’s expansive view of antitrust powers, according to a donor who has spoken privately with the vice president.

(Oh, Madame Vice President. This is a shock. In case you don't know this, working people really, really liked Joe Biden's pro-worker policies.)

As Stoller points out, an anonymous secondhand conversation with a donor isn’t proof of Harris’ policy instincts. He says it's possible that the Harris campaign set up these reporters with sources, and is trying to imply that she’s open to the demands of executives so that she can collect more campaign money from billionaires and dealmakers.

Stoller writes:

In other words, democracy really is on the ballot, but not in the way people imagine. An oligarch has explicitly and openly taken over policy because it conflicts with his small faction’s control of American society. And so far, most political leaders are silent.

The only upside here is that Hoffman is being very public, aggressive, and explicit about his demands. And he’s going to corner Harris until she kisses the ring, or refuses to do so. From his perspective, he’s not donating $10 million, he’s making a purchase. Or so he thinks. Now it’s up to Harris to make the choice. Does she have Silicon Valley donors, or Silicon Valley owners?

It's a small world. If Harris agrees to get rid of Khan, it will leak. Stay tuned.