NPR suggests Kamala use Biden's $240 million campaign war chest even if it violates FEC rules

Kamala Harris has very nearly sealed up the Democrat Party's nomination for president, only hours after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. As she makes inroads with delegates, and Dems work to coalesce around their brand new, unvetted, unpopular candidate, there have been concerns raised about whether she, without Biden, will be able to access the Biden campaign war chest that he's amassed over the past few months.

NPR suggests that "Harris can probably spend the money and pay fines later if there's a problem," meaning that if Harris and her campaign are in violation of federal election laws by spending the money, they can just be held accountable at a later time, and likely would only face fines as opposed to prosecution.

In tony fundraisers in New York and LA, helmed by Biden, George Clooney, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, the Biden campaign has worked hard to amass the $240 million they say they currently have on hand. But Republicans have said that it may not be permissible under Federal Election Commission rules for Harris to use funds that were raised to elect Biden.

FEC Chair Sean Cooksey spoke about the concerns of giving Harris access to Biden's campaign funds. Those who gave the money to the Biden campaign did so believing it would go to elect Joe Biden, and now those funds are being transferred to a different candidate, without knowing for sure if the donors would have given their money if Harris was leading the ticket.

"I think it's really complicated, is the short answer," Cooksey said. "I mean, we take a step back to consider the situation—this is really unprecedented in terms of modern political history, and certainly in terms of campaign finance law. We have a presidential nominee or a presumptive nominee dropping out just weeks before his party convention."

"What [Biden's] attempting to do is to give his entire committee, the cash and all the assets, over to another person," Cooksey said. He went on to say "I think it's gonna have to go through a process, through the FEC. I expect, there's probably going to be challenges to that at the agency, probably in the courts as well." He said that there's a disagreement among "law experts" as to whether or not Harris can claim the money for her own campaign.

"And so I think everyone would agree, though, that this is completely unprecedented, and it raises a lot of novel questions," Cooksey said.

The campaign dropped Biden's name from their FEC paperwork on Sunday after Biden, 81, posted a letter on X stating that he had decided to quit the campaign. The campaign is now called Harris for President and the Harris Victory Fund, along with the Harris Action Fund, are the official fundraising committees. Neither of those committees raised the $240 million in campaign cash currently on hand.

Cooksey's predecessor, former FEC Chair Democrat Dara Lindenbaum, said "It’s quite clear, Vice President Harris can continue using the campaign committee and its funds."

"There’s a process in which private parties can file complaints with the Federal Election Commission, Cooksey said. "There’s also a process in which they prospectively ask for advisory opinions. One of the problems with those processes is they can take a lot of time, and we don’t have a lot of time until the election, I think we’re at 106 days out. And so I think there’s going to be a lot of challenges in the courts as well."