Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threatens ‘out and out brawl’ with Harris’s billionaire backers

Democrat congresswoman sends Silicon Valley a warning over its Washington power struggle

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has threatened “an out and out brawl” with billionaire backers of Kamala Harris in a row over attempts to curb Silicon Valley’s power.
The Democrat congresswoman warned supporters of Ms Harris, who has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from businesses and tech entrepreneurs, against attempting to remove Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The Democratic competition tsar, who was appointed to lead the FTC aged just 32 under Joe Biden, has led a crusade against Silicon Valley monopolies. 
Ms Khan has spearheaded a crackdown on technology giants, launching investigations into Amazon, Meta and Microsoft. She has also zeroed in on pharmaceutical giants and drugmakers, as well as data brokers and grocery chains.
Her relentless campaign against alleged breaches of competition law has earned the ire of technology investors and Silicon Valley executives, who have accused her of “waging war” on the sector.
A former senator for California, Ms Harris is well known among Bay Area entrepreneurs and many have donated to her past campaigns.
On Wednesday, Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and a supporter of Ms Harris, told news website Semafor the Democratic nominee should sack Ms Khan if she wins power. “The bigger picture is she’s hurting more than she’s helping,” Mr Cuban said. “If it were me, I wouldn’t [keep her].”
It follows similar calls from Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, who has donated millions of dollars to the Democrats. In June, Mr Hoffman said Ms Khan was “a person who is not helping America. Antitrust is fine, waging war is not”.
In response, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, the firebrand New York congresswoman, claimed billionaires were “trying to play footsie with the ticket”. She added: “Anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl. And that is a promise.”
“She proves this admin fights for working people. It would be terrible leadership to remove her.”
Bernie Sanders, the independent senator who stood for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, said: “Lina Khan is the best FTC chair in modern history.”
Last week, Ben Horowitz, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist who had previously said he would donate to Donald Trump’s campaign, appeared to change sides, telling employees at his company he would be “making a significant donation” to the Harris campaign. Mr Horotwitz has also been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s crackdown on the tech sector.
While Ms Khan has frustrated many senior figures in the tech sector, she has won plaudits among smaller start-ups, who believe her efforts to tame big tech will help boost competition.