U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, the Democratic congressman from Silicon Valley, is defending his plans to carry a fundraiser on the house of enterprise capitalist David Sacks within the wake of advocating for presidency intervention in Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.
Sacks, who was PayPal Holdings Inc.’s
PYPL,
founding chief working officer and sometimes tweets political views that largely differ from Khanna’s, was among the many most outspoken of VCs calling for the federal government to step in after the second-largest financial institution failure in U.S. historical past. At one level within the weekend after the financial institution’s collapse, Sacks tweeted “Where is Powell? Where is Yellen? Stop this crisis NOW,” and has currently been defending the perceived function of enterprise capitalists within the collapse.
The timing of the fundraiser is coincidental, Khanna advised MarketWatch in an interview this week. It was deliberate final month, earlier than the Silicon Valley Bank failure and Khanna’s advocacy for the bailout that Sacks additionally sought, he mentioned.
On their opposing political opinions, Khanna mentioned: “David Sacks knows what my agenda is. He knows I’m a supporter of Bernie Sanders, and of higher taxes on people like him.”
The congressman added that he disagrees with Sacks’s assist of Republican politicians reminiscent of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, however identified that Sacks has additionally donated to Democrats, reminiscent of Hillary Clinton.
When reached for remark Tuesday, Sacks referred MarketWatch to his current tweet about Khanna, which acknowledged that each he and the congressman are getting criticized concerning the fundraiser.
Khanna mentioned he has proven that he may be “proud of getting support from tech leaders” and but be unbiased of them.
“The tech community explicitly lobbied me on deregulation in 2018, and I stood up to them and voted against it,” he mentioned, referring to the weakening of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The rollback eased laws for smaller banks and is now being blamed as one of many elements within the demise of Silicon Valley Bank.
The congressman final week was amongst 4 dozen Democratic lawmakers from the House and the Senate who cosponsored laws that might repeal the 2018 rollback. The invoice was launched by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Rep. Katie Porter of California.
In a news launch for the introduction of the laws, Porter’s workplace known as Title IV of the 2018 legislation — which raised the asset threshold at which a financial institution is regulated to $250 billion — “dangerous regulatory rollbacks, which invited banks to load up on risk and increase profits.”
Khanna mentioned he intends to speak to Sacks on the March 30 fundraiser concerning the want for banking-regulation adjustments, plus Medicare for All and his different priorities.
The congressman additionally mentioned he was unaware that Sacks — who co-founded Craft Ventures and was additionally an angel investor in firms like Facebook
META,
Uber Technologies Inc.
UBER,
and Airbnb Inc.
ABNB,
— cowrote a e-book with then-fellow Stanford University scholar Peter Thiel known as “The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus.” Among different issues, the Nineteen Nineties e-book criticized African American historical past programs, gender research, “the extreme focus on racism” and referred so far rape as “belated regret.” Sacks later apologized for what he known as his “former views” and mentioned he was embarrassed by them.
Khanna mentioned Sacks “knows I’m an outspoken supporter of diversity.”
According to an invitation for the fundraiser in Sacks’s San Francisco house, the contribution ranges required for entry are $3,300, $6,600 and $13,200.
Source web site: www.marketwatch.com
