'There will be an out and out brawl': AOC calls for political violence if Kamala Harris were to win election, remove current FTC Chair

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was threatening political violence Wednesday against “anyone” attempting to remove Lina Khan as the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),

“Let me make this clear, since billionaires have been trying to play footsie with the ticket: 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.”

The congresswoman was referring to comments from billionaire Harris supporter Mark Cuban who told Semafor that if the vice president wins the November presidential election, she should dump Lina Khan as head of the Federal Trade Commission. “If it were me, I wouldn’t,” reportedly said at a Kaiser Family Foundation luncheon Tuesday. He later said he had not discussed the idea with the Harris campaign.

Cuban approves of Khan initiating antitrust probes into pharmacies but said she has erred in fighting big tech over AI. “The bigger picture is, she’s hurting more than she’s helping,” Cuban said. The FTC rejected that assessment, according to the outlet, reiterating Khan’s policy that “extreme consolidation” is not good for the US economy. “Chair Khan believes that choosing competition over centralized corporate control of markets is the path to letting the best ideas win,” FTC spokesperson Doug Farrar told Semafor.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also indicated his continued support of Khan, posting on X: “.@mcuban is wrong. Lina Khan is the best FTC Chair in modern history.

By taking on corporate greed & illegal monopolies, Lina is doing an exceptional job preventing large corporations from ripping-off consumers & exploiting workers. Thanks @linakhanFTC for what you are doing.”

Ocasio-Cortez quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate, even though she had previously mused about the “enormous peril” of having President Joe Biden forced out of the nomination he had won through the primary system. Biden later admitted that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other powerful Democrats did remove him from the presidential race.