Editorial: Kamala Harris’s big Big Tech conflict
Kamala Harris has a glaring conflict as she prepares for her high-stakes debate against Donald Trump this week. Her administration heads to court in its suit against Google on Monday; meanwhile, one of her top debate prep advisors, Karen Dunn, is also the lead defense attorney for Google against the Biden-Harris Department of Justice. In politics there are no coincidences, just conflicts — and Harris must answer how it’s possible for her to rely on Dunn’s advice for how to handle Trump, while ignoring any possible advice on how to handle Google.
Harris has had deep ties to Silicon Valley for years. She hails from northern California, home to Google — and Google executives have long been Harris donors, dating back to her Senate campaigns. Many Big Tech critics on both sides of the aisle are concerned that she will depart from the bipartisan Trump and Biden lawsuits against Big Tech, which seek to address Google’s alleged monopoly and anti-competitive behavior.
Beyond Dunn’s proximity to Harris, who is known to be devoid of close advisors, conservatives also have reasons to be skeptical and fearful of Google. The company controls search, with over 90 percent dominance. What does this mean? It controls the flow of information because of its monopoly power. We have seen this story before; just ask the New York Post, which was censored for accurate reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story, or Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), who exposed China’s involvement in the lab-leak origin theory of COVID-19.
Kamala Harris has made a habit of ignoring questions from anyone. But, she should be forced to answer at the debate why she has a Google lawyer doing her debate prep while her administration is suing Google over alleged antitrust abuses.
Finally, Dunn’s position with Harris could raise questions about other ties between top Paul Weiss lawyers and the White House, especially after Dunn’s firm hired two top aides to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco: John Carlin and Lawrence Atkinson.
How can anyone trust that these are not conflicts? Harris should answer questions now or fire Dunn.
