Billionaire Leon Cooperman Goes Off on Warren: Why Villainize People Like Bezos, Bill Gates Who Do a Lot for Society?

 

You may remember how just last week a Wall Street billionaire got emotional on TV talking about Elizabeth Warren and her attacks on the super-rich. That billionaire, Leon Cooperman, appeared on CNN tonight and continued to criticize Warren for “villainizing” billionaires.

Erin Burnett brought up Warren’s response mocking him and other billionaires sounding alarms.

Cooperman asked, “What is the purpose of vilifying successful people that have done well for society? I don’t get it. She can say that wealthy people should pay more in taxes. I happen to agree with that… They should be paying more and they are paying more. If they want to raise the taxes on the wealthy, that’s fine. I have no problem with that. But the wealth tax is a stillborn idea.”

He continued, “I’m not crying over my personal income tax liability. I’m distressed over the dialogue. Why villainize wealthy people? Bill Gates has done a lot for society. David Rubenstein has done a lot for society. Jeff Bezos has done a lot for society. They should be complimented, not criticized. The wealth tax makes no sense!”

Burnett also asked Cooperman about him getting emotional on air, to which he responded, “I was emotional because I was talking about family. No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get it. Excuse me. I apologize. I get emotional when I talk about my family. I don’t want to go down that path. Something to do with my family and I got emotional.”

You can watch above, via CNN.

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Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac