Billionaire money manager Leon Cooperman on Thursday bashed Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's tweet encouraging him to "pitch in a bit more" because of his financial success, saying the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate sounded like "a parent chiding an ungrateful child."
"However much it resonates with your base, your vilification of the rich is misguided," Cooperman, 76, chairman and CEO Omega Advisers, wrote in an Oct. 30 letter first published by CNBC.
"For you to suggest that capitalism is a dirty word and that these people, as a group, are ingrates who didn't earn their riches … and now don't pull their weight societally indicates that you either are grossly uninformed or are knowingly warping the facts."
Cooperman, a former Goldman Sachs executive, has a net worth estimated at $3.2 billion, The New York Times reports.
In Warren's Oct. 23, tweet, she said: "Leon, you were able to succeed because of the opportunities this country gave you.
"Now, why don't you pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream, too?"
Warren's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment to Cooperman's remarks, the Times reports.
In a brief conversation with CNBC on Thursday, Cooperman said he mailed Warren's letter Wednesday and expected it to arrive at one of the senator's offices by Friday.
"It's a very responsible letter on why I disagree with her," he said.
Asked why he wrote, Cooperman said, "I'm responding to a tweet," before telling CNBC that had other telephone calls to make before hanging up.
Warren's platform has included several efforts aimed at Wall Street, including those that would reduce the freedoms of private-equity firms — and she has called for the return of the Glass-Steagall Act, which would break up huge banks.
She has also proposed an "ultra-millionaire" tax that would require households of $50 million to $1 billion to pay 2 percent of their wealth in taxes every year.
The Warren-Cooperman rift began on Oct. 16, when the billionaire predicted to CNBC that stocks would fall 25% if she were elected.
He then accused Warren of soiling the American dream in an Oct. 23 Politico interview, emphasizing his point with profanity.
"What is wrong with billionaires?" he asked in the interview. "You can become a billionaire by developing products and services that people will pay for.
"I believe in a progressive income tax and the rich paying more," Cooperman added before making his "American dream" remark.
Warren then fired off the tweet — and Cooperman started his letter after "several friends passed along" the post, he said.
"You proceeded to admonish me (as if a parent chiding an ungrateful child) to 'pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream,'" Cooperman wrote.
But "your tweet demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of who I am, what I stand for, and why I believe so many of your economic policy initiatives are misguided," he said.
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