O'Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O'Leary discusses July's “weak” jobs report and President Trump's comments on cryptocurrency.
According to information obtained by FOX Business, Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is actively trying to repair tensions with the $2 trillion cryptocurrency industry with the help of current White House officials, as well as those who recently left the administration to help Harris take over the White House in November.
National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, one of the Biden administration's top economists, and Anita Dunn, who left her post as a senior adviser to Biden to serve as an adviser to a super PAC supporting Harris, are scheduled to appear late next week on a high-profile Zoom call hosted by California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna that will include leading cryptocurrency businesses and members of Harris' campaign team, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed is also scheduled to join the call, according to people familiar with the matter.The call was designed to help Harris shed her image as an anti-cryptocurrency politician as she seeks votes and funding from the burgeoning cryptocurrency community following the Biden administration's years-long crackdown on the digital asset industry.
RO KHANNA Cryptocurrency Roundtable Seeks White House and Democratic Inroads in Industry
Lael Brainard said in an interview on Nov. 14, 2022, in Washington, DC. | Getty Images
“Rep. Khanna is clearly trying to neutralize the crazed forces on the left wing of the Democratic Party that are allowing Republicans to win elections on this issue,” an industry source who asked not to be named told Fox Business.
Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, speaks at a “Drop Fossil Fuels” rally near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on June 29, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Khanna's meeting, first reported by Fox Business's X, came as members of the Harris campaign were holding their own meetings with trade groups and industry leaders to discuss concerns about the current administration and the way forward.
White House officials and a spokesman for Harris' campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
An estimated 50 million Americans are invested in some form of digital assets, and both presidential candidates are eyeing the industry for campaign dollars and votes. Republican candidate Donald Trump first got involved with the cryptocurrency world earlier this year, seeking to take advantage of the Biden administration's aggressive regulatory policies that have angered many top players.
Last weekend, Trump took to the stage at the main event of the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, drawing thousands of crypto enthusiasts who cheered as Trump promised to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler “on his first day in office” if re-elected. Trump openly endorsed the crypto industry in May, announcing that he has raised more than $25 million from crypto enthusiasts since he began accepting campaign contributions in crypto.
Ahead of President Trump's appearance in Nashville, 14 Democratic members of Congress and several candidates sent a letter to the DNC and Harris urging the party to take a friendlier approach to digital assets. Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-North Carolina, who wrote the letter and spoke at the Bitcoin conference, confirmed to FOX Business that he has been directly involved in urging the Harris campaign to embrace a “crypto reset.”
Former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville on July 27, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Wurm/File Photo/Reuters Photo)
Harris was invited to the Nashville conference but declined to attend, according to conference organizers. She has yet to take a clear stance on how she feels about cryptocurrencies, with her campaign aides apparently doing much of the groundwork, which is one of the reasons she is struggling to gain support in the crypto community.
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“I don't believe you can repair bridges after burning them for four years with just words,” Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, said in a post on X on Sunday. “We won't take any bluffs and we're not swayed by what you say, only by what you do.”
Gemini cryptocurrency exchange has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Gensler for selling unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrencies through its lending platform.
“Given President Trump's phenomenal success with Bitcoin Nashville, it's no surprise to me that Kamala Harris would make a desperate last-minute 180-degree turn to present a pro-crypto stance, as she has done on so many other issues,” Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty, one of several pro-crypto politicians who spoke at the Bitcoin conference, told Fox Business.
“The Republican Party is the party of cryptocurrency,” he added. “Kamala Harris' last-ditch efforts aren't going to change that.”
Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) speaks at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington, DC on April 26, 2022. (Bonnie Cash Pool/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Blaming Gensler or vowing to oust him, as Trump did in Nashville, would help ease Harris' relationship with the industry, but is unlikely, political advisers say. Gensler is a staunch supporter of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the most influential lawmakers on economic issues. Warren has endorsed Harris for the presidency and hosted her first fundraiser in Massachusetts on Saturday, the same day Trump attends the bitcoin conference.
Like Gensler, Warren is also a cryptocurrency skeptic. If Harris wins in November and Warren retains her seat, she could have a major say in key economic positions, such as the selection of the next SEC commissioner. Warren will be challenged by John Deaton, a pro-cryptocurrency lawyer running as a Republican.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 13, 2023. (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Next week's meeting hosted by Khanna will be the second in the past two months. In July, he hosted a meeting with the help of Mark Cuban, a pro-crypto billionaire tech entrepreneur who has been a vocal critic of Trump's economic policies. Dunn, a former Biden aide, represented the White House at the meeting and heard the industry's concerns about the administration's crypto efforts, as well as a number of complaints against Gensler. Cuban called on Biden to fire the SEC chief.
Mark Cuban watches a basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena on November 25, 2023 in Los Angeles. (Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images/Getty Images)
FOX Business has learned that the guest list includes Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen. The two have been strong critics of the Biden administration's tightening regulations. Ripple has been in court battling SEC President Gensler over a high-profile lawsuit filed during the Trump administration and continued by the Biden administration. The suit alleges that the company failed to register for sales of XRP, the cryptocurrency it was selling to investors to build its platform. Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital and former communications director for former President Trump and now a vocal critic of the former president, is also scheduled to attend the virtual conference.
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“I look forward to seeing how the coming weeks will shape our collective efforts to ensure the industry gets a fresh start, cryptocurrency maintains bipartisan support, and keeps Donald Trump from returning to the White House,” Scaramucci told Fox Business. “I'm proud to be a part of these efforts.”
