MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Biden for President Campaign Committee has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to change its name to Harris for President. If Vice President Kamala Harris succeeds President Biden at the top of the ticket, she will likely want to use that money he has raised.
One person who may have a say in that is the chair of the Federal Election Commission. Sean Cooksey is one of three Republicans who serve along with three Democrats on the Commission. He was appointed by President Trump, and he was kind enough to join us in our studios now. Good morning.
SEAN COOKSEY: Good morning.
MARTIN: So the campaign said it had $240 million on hand at the start of this month. You recently posted on X, formally Twitter, and I'm quoting - you were quoting from the regulations here. You said, if the candidate is not a candidate in the general election, all contributions made for the general election shall be either returned or refunded to the contributors or redesignated or reattributed as appropriate. So what does that mean? Can Harris use that money?
COOKSEY: Well, I think it's really complicated, is the short answer. I mean, we take a step back to consider the situation - this is really unprecedented in terms of modern political history, and certainly in terms of campaign finance law. We have a presidential nominee or a presumptive nominee dropping out just weeks before his party convention. And he's - what he's attempting to do is to give his entire committee, the cash and all the assets...
MARTIN: Yeah.
COOKSEY: ...Over to another person.
MARTIN: We get that. So can she use that money?
COOKSEY: Well, again, I think it's going to have to go through a process through the FEC. I think I expect there's going to be probably challenges to that at the agency and probably in the courts, as well.
MARTIN: So your colleague, the Democratic vice chair of the FEC, Ellen Weintraub, told us yesterday that candidates running for president and vice president share a campaign committee. Kamala Harris has always been listed as a candidate on this committee. Now, Weintraub didn't draw any conclusion from that, but, I mean, a lot of people are interpreting that to say that she has a legitimate claim to those funds.
COOKSEY: Yeah, I think some lawyers have reached that conclusion. I think other election law experts have actually reached the opposite conclusion in publications like The Wall Street Journal. And so I think everyone would agree, though, that this is completely unprecedented, and it raises a lot of novel questions.
MARTIN: So, you know, the former president, Trump, has not been shy about noting who appointed whom when it comes to matters where people sit in judgment of things that matter to him. So is it fair to point out that you are a Trump appointee, and would it be reasonable to suggest that your interpretation of these facts is leaning in a manner that would be favorable to him, just as one would assume that the Democratic members of the committee are inclined to make decisions that are favorable to the Democrats? Do you think that's fair?
COOKSEY: No. I think it's entirely reasonable for people to look at the appointees on the Federal Election Commission and to question their motivations about - based on their party appointment. I can only speak for myself, which is to say that in my time on the Federal Election Commission, I've made dozens of rulings against Republicans and many rulings in favor of Democrats. I always try to approach these issues based on what the law requires and what is the best policy, not what's going to give people a certain partisan advantage in the short term.
MARTIN: So you've indicated that there is a method to challenge this money going to the Harris campaign. You have to assume that the Trump campaign or other Republicans would pursue that. How does that work, and how is that resolved in the end?
COOKSEY: Yeah. I think there's a number of different avenues that I could expect different parties to challenge this attempted transfer, this attempted change to the presidential committees. There's a process in which private parties can file complaints with the Federal Election Commission. There's also a process in which they prospectively ask for advisory opinions. One of the problems with those processes is they can take a lot of time, and we don't have a lot of time until the election, I think we're at 106 days out. And so I think there's going to be a lot of challenges in the courts as well.
MARTIN: That is Sean Cooksey. He's the current chair of the Federal Election Commission. He's a Trump appointee. Mr. Cooksey, thanks so much for joining us.
COOKSEY: Thank you so much for having me.
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