London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Aug 22, 2026

This billionaire says Elizabeth Warren is a 'superficial, nasty hater'

This billionaire says Elizabeth Warren is a 'superficial, nasty hater'

Hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman escalated his fight with Elizabeth Warren on Friday by calling the Democratic presidential candidate a "superficial, nasty hater" who isn't interested in dealing with facts.

"The voting public should not be taken in by this political charlatan," Cooperman told CNN Business.

His comments come after Warren took her clash with billionaires to their home turf by airing ads on CNBC, making the case for a wealth tax aimed at easing America's inequality problem.

Warren's commercial called out Cooperman, who was charged by the SEC with insider trading in 2016. Those charges were settled when Cooperman agreed to pay a fine of nearly $5 million.

Cooperman, the son of a plumber who has pledged to give away his entire fortune to charity, took issue with Warren bringing up the "SEC baloney." He noted that he did not admit nor deny fault and avoided getting barred from the industry.

"Any attorney will tell you I won the case because there was no case," Cooperman said. "But what does this have to do with her qualifications to be president? I'm not running for office - she is."

He added that Warren "impresses me as a superficial, nasty hater that doesn't seem interested in dealing with facts."


Cooperman 'can't escape the tax'

Warren isn't backing down. She signaled on Friday plans to ramp up her ad blitz pushing for a wealth tax.

"Some of the scared billionaires who oppose it are going on TV and tweeting their complaints," Warren tweeted. "It clearly struck a nerve. But we need this tax to help working families-so we're increasing our ad buy."

Warren's campaign responded to Cooperman's latest remarks by pointing out the high stakes for the billionaire.

"We're going to tax Leon Cooperman's fortune of $3.2 billion," Saloni Sharma, Warren's national deputy press secretary, told CNN Business in an email.

Cooperman "can't escape the tax" because it will apply as long as he's an American citizen, Sharma said. If Cooperman renounced his citizenship, he would have to pay a 40% exit tax on every dollar of his fortune above $50 million, she said.

"We're going to be giving the IRS the teeth and the tools to make sure the billionaires pay up," Sharma said.

Warren has called for imposing a wealth tax of 6 cents on every dollar of net worth above $1 billion. Her campaign says the wealth tax could be used to pay for proposed programs such as universal child care, universal pre-school, canceling student loan debt and Medicare-for-All.

Warren's agenda is aimed at tackling America's inequality problem head-on. The top 1% of US households now controls $34.7 trillion of the nation's wealth, according to the Federal Reserve. The bottom 50% of families holds only $2.1 trillion.

"All we're saying is when you make it big, pitch in two cents so everyone else gets a chance," Warren said during her ad that aired on Thursday on CNBC, a network that often hosts the billionaires whose wealth the Democrat wants to tax.

Beyond the wealth tax, Warren has also called for breaking up Facebook (FB) and banning the fracking of oil and gas.


Blankfein warns against vilifying

Warren's aggressive agenda and her tough tone have sparked a backlash from other wealthy individuals.

Lloyd Blankfein, a registered Democrat and the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, has acknowledged the inequality problem and supports taxing the rich more.

However, Blankfein recently told CNN's Poppy Harlow that he fears Warren wants "cataclysmic change" to the US economy. Warren featured those comments in her CNBC ad and then called Blankfein out for getting a $70 million pay package in 2007, the year the Great Recession began.

Blankfein, who backed Hillary Clinton in 2016, responded by hinting at Warren's past disputed claims to Native American heritage.

"Vilification of people as a member of a group may be good for her campaign, not the country," Blankfein tweeted on Thursday. "Maybe tribalism is just in her DNA."


Warren fired another verbal shot at Blankfein on Friday.

"He ran Goldman Sachs while it misled its own clients in order to turn a profit, which helped create the 2008 crash," Warren tweeted. "His bank then took billions in backdoor taxpayer bailouts, and no one was held accountable."

Cooperman said he sent a letter to Warren late last month that, he complains, she never responded to. The letter, which Cooperman provided to CNN Business, suggested alternatives to a wealth tax, such as eliminating loopholes in the tax code and implementing a surtax on millionaires.

"The fact is, Senator Warren, that despite our philosophical differences, we should be working together to find common ground in this vital conversation -- not firing off snarky tweets that stir your base at the expense of accuracy," Cooperman wrote.
Yet the rhetoric has only gotten more heated in the weeks since he sent that letter.

Cooperman, however, said his letter was "respectful and, if I must say, was extremely well done."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Prince Harry and Co-Claimants Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million Toward Daily Mail Publisher’s Legal Costs
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Reportedly Plan Return to Britain With Their Children
UK Court Ruling Threatens Deportation Plans for Potential Trafficking Victims to Albania
Kemi Badenoch Presses UK Government for Decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw Oil Fields
UK Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Calls for Ban on Goods from Occupied West Bank
Andy Burnham Government to Place Civil Servants Directly in English Mayoral Offices
Met Office Warns Major El Niño Could Bring Stormier, Wetter Autumn to UK
UK Economy Gains Unexpected Momentum Ahead of Andy Burnham Government’s First Budget
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Royal Navy to Accelerate DragonFire Laser Deployment Against Growing Drone Threat
Northern Ireland Approves Five Hundred Million Pound Belfast Harbour Expansion
Great British Railways Takes Full Control of Avanti West Coast as Rail Nationalisation Reaches Final Stage
UK AI Safety Institute Calls for Mandatory Security Audits of Advanced AI Models
Scotland Secures Three Billion Pounds for Floating Offshore Wind Hub in Aberdeen
Government Overrides Local Councils to Approve Green Belt Housing Across Southern England
UK and EU Move Toward Mutual Recognition of Food Standards to Ease Cross-Channel Trade
Government Plans Multibillion-Pound Private Healthcare Expansion to Cut NHS Surgical Backlogs
Bank of England Signals Faster Rate Cuts as Inflation Falls Below the Two Percent Target
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
Moderna Shares Surge After Positive Personalized Skin Cancer Trial Results
UK Markets Watch US National Debt Surpass Forty Trillion Dollars
UK Broadcasters Urge Government to Invest in Digital Participation and Broadband
CVC Capital Partners and Standard Life Launch Two Billion Pound Pension Risk Transfer Venture
UK Private Sector Productivity Growth Accelerates in Second Quarter
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband Condemns Israeli E1 Settlement Tender
UK Watchdog Investigates Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School Over Hidden Fees
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Plan Move to Private Home Outside London
UK Retail Sentiment Improves as Summer Spending Boosts Consumer Confidence
UK Aid Cuts Draw Warnings From Charities Over Humanitarian Consequences
UK Financial Conduct Authority Issues Guidance for Motor Finance Redress Scheme
UK Met Office Launches Aviation Programme to Reduce Climate Impact of Persistent Contrails
Former UK Civil Service Chief Received Record 500,000 Pound Severance Payment
West Midlands to Bring Bus Network Under Public Franchising Model
UK Government Drops Plan to Relax Affordable Housing Requirements After Backlash
×