By Our Reporter
With Joe Biden, the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, dropping out of the election amid concerns over his health and endorsing in his stead, his Vice President, Kamala Harris, there are fears that Harris may not be able to access the millions of dollars remaining from President’s Biden campaign, contrary to the views of some Democrats who believe the funds should be rightfully hers.
Sean Cooksey, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), suggested Monday that Vice President Harris may not be able to access the money.
At the time of Biden’s exit, the campaign had just under $96 million in cash on hand as of June 30, according to its most recent report to the FEC, and filed paperwork to change its name from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” within hours of the president’s decision.
Even before the campaign filed to change its name, Harris was listed as a candidate alongside Biden on its paperwork with the FEC.
Campaign finance lawyers previously told The Hill that Harris would be able to access the funds if she becomes the nominee. Democrats have started to coalesce behind Harris, but Cooksey called the situation “complicated” and suggested it would be challenged in the agency and at the courts.
“I think it’s really complicated, is the short answer,” Cooksey told “Morning Edition” on NPR. “What he’s attempting to do is to give his entire committee, the cash and all the assets, over to another person.”
“I think it’s gonna have to go through a process, through the FEC,” Cooksey added. “I expect, there’s probably going to be challenges to that at the agency, and probably in the courts as well.”
Democratic Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, who chaired the commission last year, pushed back on the suggestion that Harris would not be able to access those funds.
“It’s quite clear, Vice President Harris can continue using the campaign committee and its funds,” Lindenbaum told The Hill.
Steve Roberts, former general counsel to Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, was also skeptical of Cooksey’s comments.
“This interpretation is likely wishful thinking,” Roberts told The Hill.
“Since the declarations of candidacy for 2024, the reasonable interpretation is that the Biden campaign committee is a shared one between Harris / Biden, and perhaps uniquely so because they are incumbents. Otherwise, in 2020, Trump-Pence wouldn’t have had a shared committee, but would have set up separate committees and had their own contribution limits,” he explained.
Cooksey was appointed to the FEC in 2020 by then-President Trump, who last week accepted the Republican presidential nomination in Milwaukee.
With reports from the HILL