BILLIONAIRE Leon Cooperman thinks 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders is a “bigger threat” to the global stock market than the deadly coronavirus — and accused him of being a communist.
Cooperman, 76, told business news channel CNBC on Tuesday “there are things that are very troubling to me” about Sanders, who he said is “misrepresenting” himself to voters.
“He is not a socialist. He is, rather, a communist. … I just hope the country isn’t ready to elect a communist or a socialist,” Cooperman said.
On the topic of the coronavirus, Cooperman said he doesn’t have “any insight” into the illness, which has killed more than 2,000 people worldwide.
“But I assume, with all the great minds of the world focused on this problem, that in three or four months this will become resolved.”
The billionaire investor said if the U.S. does electv Sanders, he believes “the market is in store for a big problem.”
Sanders is often considered the Democratic frontrunner in this year’s election.
He is currently leading in most national Democratic primary polls.
Sanders halls himself a democratic socialist, and has used that economic philosophy to guide his political career.
The Vermont senator said during a speech in June: “Let me be clear: I do understand that I and other progressives will face massive attacks from those who attempt to use the word ‘socialism’ as a slur.”
“But I should also tell you that I have faced and overcome these attacks for decades, and I am not the only one.”
Sanders said President Donald Trump “believes in corporate socialism for the rich and powerful,” while he believes in “a democratic socialism that works for the working families of this country.”
Cooperman is a billionaire investor and hedge fund manager who founded Omega Advisors in 1991.
He said he believes Mike Bloomberg, who is also a billionaire, is the only candidate he thinks can beat Trump in this election.
During last night’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Bloomberg said he doesn’t think “there’s any chance” of Sanders beating Trump.
“The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses!” Bloomberg said.
Sanders defended owning multiple houses, noting he has one in Washington, D.C., where he works, and two in Vermont, the state he represents in the Senate.
Cooperman, in another appearance on CNBC last year, similarly said that if Sen. Elizabeth Warren wins the presidential election, “we’re in big trouble.”
He said Warren’s proposal to put a new tax on the nation’s wealthiest people a plan to “penalize success” and said her ideas “made no sense.”
Warren’s campaign has made an issue of income inequality and the senator has said she would push for new taxes to help pay for programs such as expanding Medicare, forgiving student loan debt and spending on infrastructure.
One of her top proposals is a 2 percent tax on every dollar of a person’s wealth above $50 million.
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