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Jim Cramer is obsessed with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. He’s called Khan a Marxist hack, compared her to Don Quixote, and even just flat-out called her stupid—all on a national cable news network.

It’s clear that Cramer cannot control his anger about the FTC’s historic pro-working families record and instead derides Chair Khan’s work to deliver for the public as “amateur hour” and “laughable.” That’s because after decades of corporate-friendly antitrust regimes, Chair Khan is steering the FTC towards a new era of more effective, modern, and democratic enforcement to better protect consumers, workers, and independent businesses.

We noticed Cramer’s anger, and started tracking his most egregious on-air outbursts in early 2023. As you’ll see in the clips below, it’s clear Cramer’s fellow anchors have caught on to his unhealthy vendetta, and have repeatedly tried to rein him in. But week after week, Cramer just can’t seem to stop himself from complaining about Chair Khan. Given that the folks on CNBC complain about Chair Khan on TV multiple times a day, this list is meant to keep track of Jim Cramer’s most hostile moments.

Jim Cramer is a business journalist. If Cramer was accurately reporting what the FTC is doing, he would see that Chair Khan is pursuing a pro-business, pro-innovation, and pro-worker agenda. And he is capable of it: he did, for example, proclaim the FTC’s case against Kroger-Albertsons to be strong. The Biden administration’s antitrust enforcers have been moving aggressively—and Cramer does refer to DOJ’s Jonathan Kanter as “rigorous thinker” and a “heavyweight”—but he is so blinded by his obsession of Chair Khan that he sometimes even rails against her for suits brought by the DOJ and forgets to give the Antitrust Division credit for its work. As he spirals in his attempt to protect his Wall Street cronies, he’s tripping over basic facts.

The bottom line is that if Wall Street and corporate America’s biggest TV mouthpiece is this upset with Chair Khan, it’s a sign that her work to promote a fair and competitive economy for working people is paying off.

We’ll be watching closely, and updating this tracker each time Jim Cramer decides to throw a tantrum over the FTC’s enforcement record.

Last updated in May, 2024

DateVideo LinkKey Cramer Quotes
May 3, 2024WatchBrings up the FTC during a completely unrelated discussion, saying “they’re not focused on that, they’re focused on handbags,” leaving his co-hosts confused. 
May 3, 2024 WatchCramer says he would like to defend Scott Sheffield, who the FTC revealed engaging in illegal oil price fixing schemes, but he needs “more ammo.”
April 30, 2024WatchMocks the FTC’s challenges against Tapestry-Capri and Vizio-Walmart, facetiously saying “they’ve got to stop the handbag problem.” 
April 19, 2024WatchOnce again disparages the FTC’s enforcement record in comparison to Jonathan Kanter and the Justice Department. 
April 17, 2024WatchCalls the FTC’s suit against Tapestry-Capri “stupid” and “comical."
April 11, 2024WatchCramer once again confuses the FTC and DOJ, showing he doesn’t even remember or understand which agency is responsible for suing Amazon. 
March 25, 2024WatchSays the administration’s antitrust enforcement against monopolies is getting too “overwhelming” for the “investor class.” After criticizing the FTC’s suit against Amazon, he says “what the hell are they smoking. Did cannabis just become legal?”
March 21, 2024WatchComplains that the “FTC has hated Amazon. Lina Khan has hated Amazon.”
March 7, 2024WatchTries to contain his anger while saying the FTC is an example of an agency that is “not good”
March 5, 2024WatchAsks “do you think Trump keeps Khan if he becomes President?” and then dismisses bipartisan support for Khan’s leadership.  
February 28, 2024WatchDescribes AAG Jonathan Kanter, Khan’s male counterpart at the DOJ, as a serious “heavyweight” while disparaging Chair Khan. 
February 20, 2024 WatchSays that Khan has become “an empty suit.” 
February 9, 2024WatchRefers to the FTC’s activity last year as an “agency run amok. A rogue agency that’s blocking everything.”
January 29, 2024WatchDescribes the DOJ Antitrust Division as savvy while the FTC is “naive.” Calls Kanter a “heavy hitter” and Khan a “student.”
January 26, 2024WatchFollowing FTC announcement of AI inquiry, Cramer says he thought the FTC would be more rigorous, but instead the agency is “torturing all the companies that America likes.”
January 9, 2024WatchRefers to Khan’s FTC as “amateur hour,” while calling Kanter’s DOJ a “heavyweight” that “doesn’t bring absurd cases.” Cramer’s colleagues leave an awkward silence to fill the void. 
January 9, 2024WatchClaims that Chair Khan has gotten “more realistic” after he his colleagues have “pounded, pounded, pounded everyday.” 
December 8, 2023WatchSays the the FTC suit against Amazon is “laughable.” He says it’s not entrapping to use anticompetitive conduct, but is a “joy” to consumers.
December 1, 2023WatchClaims “the core element of what Lina Khan thinks is that all deals are bad” and that the FTC is “not thinking about the consumer.” His colleague steers him away, correctly pointing out that a key element of the problems with the Cigna-Humana deal have to do with pharmacy benefit managers.
November 21, 2023WatchMuses about a potential movie idea about a regulator attacking big companies, saying that film actor “Eli Wallach was not from Mexico.” Then asking “does he play Lina Khan. Where is she from? Maybe Lina Khan is played by the late Eli Wallach in the movie.” His colleague says, surprised, "you haven't mentioned Lina Khan in at least a few shows."
November 20, 2023WatchSays “If you want to see the market go higher, Biden just needs to replace his FTC Chair Lina Khan. But given his pro-worker attitude and that mergers often do lead to layoffs, I doubt he’ll go there. Then again, no one ever lasts forever in these jobs, so you never know.”  
November 10, 2023WatchDiscussing a potential challenge to a Pfizer deal, Cramer says “Enough already…the FTC could put the kibosh on a deal that makes tons of sense.”
November 6, 2023WatchSays the “FTC is not sensible and we haven’t heard from them lately which is a delight. But they’ve wrecked the M&A market.”
October 27, 2023Watch
Says that “Lina Khan is Don Quixote…she goes after companies that lower prices like an Amazon and she’s worried about small suppliers being wiped out.” David Faber, frustrated, replies, “I love how you bring everything back to Lina Khan. What’s that got to do with anything?”
October 13, 2023 WatchMaking yet another bad faith and incorrect comparison between Kanter and Khan, Cramer emphasizes that Kanter is “more rigorous.” 
October 11, 2023 WatchAfter Cramer rants that Chair Khan “is anti-corporate,” his colleagues call him out for talking about Chair Khan too much and say he takes “every opportunity to come back to Khan…She’s a lovely lady, smart and nice.”
September 28, 2023 WatchBlames Chair Khan for Amazon’s share price dip and then ridicules her – “Who made more money off of antitrust, her or me? Yeah, I think me.”
September 9, 2023 WatchInsulting Chair Khan’s intelligence, he says “One of the things I just find to be unbelievable is what Lina Khan focuses on. She almost sits there and thinks, ‘Today, I’m going to say something really stupid and let those guys on Squawk on the Street say whatever they want. I am entitled to my stupid positions.’”
August 15, 2023WatchMakes up a fake situation about something Chair Khan has never done and then proceeds to get mad about it. Encourages mass resignation at the Commission. Frequently refers to her as a “hack” and as having “total hack views.”
June 8, 2023WatchMuses if Chair Khan believes corporate mergers help “malefactors of great wealth.” Then goes into how her views compare to Lenin and Trotsky.
March 21, 2023WatchOnce again refers to Kanter as a rigorous thinker. 
January 25, 2023WatchSarcastically refers to Khan as “our distinguished FTC Chairperson” and then launches into a factually incorrect rant that compares Khan to Karl Marx and Teddy Roosevelt.