WHY DOES THIS SOUND SO FAMILIAR? Harris embraces crypto, in overture to young men.
In an aggressive overture to business and young men, Vice President Harris used a packed fundraiser on Wall Street yesterday to declare her friendliness to cryptocurrency — and promise to work with major companies.
Why it matters: Harris is trying to convince businesspeople she’d be better than former President Trump, despite his promised tax cuts — and would work with them more than President Biden, who rankled many CEOs.
The fundraiser at Cipriani Wall Street raised $27 million — the biggest single-day haul of Harris’ presidential campaign.
Oh, yeah — it sounds familiar because I wrote about it just last week: This Is What Trump’s Crypto Play Is Really About.
I think Trump is making a bold play for technologists and tech-minded libertarians who ordinarily wouldn’t even dream of voting for him.
Anointed Democrat nominee Kamala Harris is a “blank slate” on crypto, according to Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, like she is on so many other issues. “She has no track record at all, which is probably in some ways a benefit for her,” O’Leary said. “She’s got a blank slate. She can start bringing policy in any way she wishes.”
Other crypto investors don’t see Harris’s flexibility as a plus for them. “U.S. cryptocurrency shares fell in early trading on Wednesday after Democratic candidate Kamala Harris put her Republican rival and crypto supporter Donald Trump on the defensive in a combative presidential debate,” Reuters reported last week.
Trump, on the other hand, already has one tech bro on board — Vivek Ramaswamy, who last year made himself the only GOP presidential candidate with a crypto policy plan. “What we’re going to have is rescinding any of those regulations that are allowing the regulatory state to go after perfectly legal behavior, but by claiming that somehow it shouldn’t exist because they don’t like it,” Ramaswamy said at the time. “All of that can end on my watch.”
Whatever you think of Trump’s business partners at WLF — like self-described “dirtbag of the internet,” Chase Herro — if you’re a tech-savvy who’s been in on crypto for years, who are you going to trust?
Harris will get serious about crypto just as soon as she’s tackled that border crisis.