Ro Khanna will host key meeting to help Harris repair crypto relations
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Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is actively attempting to repair her fraught relationship with the $2 trillion cryptocurrency industry with the help of a current senior White House official and one who just left the administration to help her take the White House in November, FOX Business has learned.
National Economic Council chief Lael Brainard, one of the Biden administration’s top economists, and Anita Dunn, who is leaving her position as a senior aide to President Biden to advise a pro-Harris super PAC, are scheduled to attend a high-profile Zoom meeting later next week hosted by California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna that's will include major players in the crypto business and members of the Harris campaign, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed is also slated to take part in the call, these people say. The meeting is designed to help Harris — as she seeks votes and money from the burgeoning crypto community — reshape her image as an anti-crypto politician following the Biden administration’s yearslong crackdown on the digital asset industry.
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Lael Brainard speaks during an interview in Washington, D.C., Nov. 14, 2022. | Getty Images
"Rep. Khanna is clearly trying to neutralize the crazy faction on the left side of the Dems that is letting the Republicans run away with this issue as a winner in the election," an industry official who wished to remain anonymous told FOX Business.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speaks at an "End Fossil Fuel" rally near the U.S. Capitol June 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Khanna's meeting, first reported via X by FOX Business, comes as members of the Harris campaign have been holding their own meetings with industry organizations and leaders to discuss concerns about the current administration and a path forward for the future.
A White House official and a press rep for the Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
With an estimated 50 million Americans invested in some form of digital assets, both presidential candidates are eyeing the industry for campaign contributions and votes. Republican nominee Donald Trump was first to engage with the crypto crowd earlier this year, seeking to capitalize on the Biden administration’s aggressive regulatory agenda that has angered many top players.
Last weekend, he headlined the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, drawing thousands of crypto enthusiasts who cheered loudly when he promised to make America "the crypto capital of the planet" and to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler "on day one" if he’s re-elected to the White House. Trump announced he has raised more than $25 million from crypto donors since May, when he began publicly embracing the industry and accepting crypto campaign donations.
Ahead of Trump’s appearance in Nashville, 14 Democratic House members and a handful of candidates sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee and Harris urging the party to take a more friendly approach to digital assets. North Carolina Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel, who wrote the letter and spoke at the Bitcoin Conference, confirmed to FOX Business that he has been directly involved with encouraging the Harris campaign to embrace a "crypto reset."
Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville July 27, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Wurm/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
According to conference organizers, Harris was invited to the Nashville conference but declined to attend. She has yet to give a definitive stance on how she feels about cryptocurrency, and her campaign aides appear to be doing most of the legwork. That’s one among many reasons she faces an uphill battle gaining support in crypto land.
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"You can't burn bridges for 4 years and expect to rebuild them with words alone," Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini, said Sunday in a post on X. "We will not fall for any bluffs. And we will not be swayed by what you say. We will only consider what you do."
The Gemini crypto exchange has been sued by the Gensler SEC for selling alleged unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency through its lending platform.
"It’s no surprise that after witnessing the monumental success of President Trump at Bitcoin Nashville, Kamala Harris is — as she has on many other issues — making a desperate last-minute 180-degree flip to appear pro-crypto," Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty told FOX Business. Haggerty is one of the more pro-crypto politicians who also spoke at the Bitcoin Conference.
"The Republican Party is the party of crypto," he added, "and no last-ditch effort from Kamala Harris will change that."
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing April 26, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Bonnie Cash-Pool/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Bouncing Gensler — or Harris vowing to do so as Trump did in Nashville — would help ease relations between Harris and the industry, though the odds are low, political advisers say. Gensler is a staunch ally of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the most powerful lawmakers on economic matters. Warren has endorsed Harris for president and hosted her first fundraiser in Massachusetts on Saturday while Trump attended the Bitcoin Conference.
Like Gensler, Warren is a crypto skeptic. And if Harris were to win in November and Warren retains her seat, she could have a big say on key economic positions such as who would be the next head of the SEC. Warren is being challenged by pro-crypto lawyer John Deaton, who is running on the Republican ticket.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill June 13, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Next week's meeting hosted by Khanna is the second such event in the past two months. In July, he assembled a confab with the help of pro-crypto billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who has been a vocal critic of Trump’s economic policies. Dunn, the former Biden aide, was the White House’s representative at the gathering, where she listened to industry concerns about the administration’s approach to crypto and many complaints about Gensler. Cuban called on Biden to fire the SEC chief.
Mark Cuban attends a basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena Nov. 25, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images / Getty Images)
FOX Business has learned the guest list includes Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen, who have been staunch critics of the Biden administration’s regulatory crackdown. Ripple has been battling the Gensler SEC in court over a high-profile lawsuit brought during the Trump years but continued by the Biden White House. The suit alleges the firm failed to register sales of its crypto token XRP, which it was selling to investors to build out its platform. Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital and Trump’s former communications director who is now a major critic of the former president, will also be at the virtual meeting.
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"I look forward to seeing what the coming weeks bring on a fresh start with the industry, ensuring cryptocurrency remains bipartisan, and our combined efforts to ensure Donald Trump doesn't return to the White House," Scaramucci told FOX Business. "I'm proud to be a part of these efforts."