This week’s U.S. Senate confirmation of big tech critic Jonathan Kanter to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division came without the support of Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford.
He voted against Kanter’s confirmation while Sen. Jim Inhofe did not vote in the 68-29 move by the Senate.
Kanter is an antitrust lawyer known for his opposition to tech giants and with the DOJ will head the agency’s antitrust division. He is the latest Biden DOJ appointment of competition regulators and advisers known for their outspokenness of Big Tech.
Sen. Lankford was among several Republicans who also opposed the confirmation of another Big Tech critic, Lina Kahn who was chosen to head the Federal Trade Commission. She was most recently an associate professor of law at Columbia University and four years out of law school.
“Her views on antitrust enforcement are also wildly out of step with a prudent approach to the law,” said one U.S. Senator at the time.
This is the same Lina Kahn who was asked by President Biden this week to probe whether the oil and gas industry is manipulating the gasoline market to drive up prices at the pump.
“Usually, prices at the pump correspond to movements in the price of unfinished gasoline,” he wrote. “But in the last month the price of unfinished gasoline is down more than 5 percent while gas prices at the pump are up 3 percent.”
Kanter promised during his confirmation hearing to carry out vigorous enforcement in the technology area. The Associated Press reported that Kanter will likely head the prosecution against Google which is accused of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising.
The company was hit with charges by the Trump Justice Department in October 2020.
