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Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, weighed in on Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s battle against the ultra-rich in an interview on CNBC Tuesday evening.
“She uses some pretty harsh words,” Dimon said in the interview. “Some would say she vilifies successful people. I don’t like vilifying anybody. I think we should applaud successful people.”
Warren — who has been locked in a public spat with hedge-fund billionaire Leon Cooperman — addressed Dimon’s comments in a series of tweets Tuesday.
“It’s really simple: Jamie Dimon and his buddies are successful in part because of the opportunities, workforce, and public services that we all paid for,” Warren wrote in a tweet. “It’s only fair that he and his billionaire friends chip in to make sure everyone else has a chance to succeed.”
She added: “The fact that they’ve reacted so strongly—so angrily!—to being asked to chip in more tells you all you need to know. The system is working great for the wealthy and well-connected, and Jamie Dimon doesn’t want that to change.”
The senator from Massachusetts has found herself at the receiving end of a wave of criticism from finance titans over her wealth-tax proposal. Both Paul Tudor Jones and Cooperman said the stock market would fall 25% if Warren takes the White House in 2020.
One of the biggest points of contention for Warren’s campaign has been how she plans to pay for her Medicare-for-All proposal. While Dimon didn’t address the policy directly, he did say politicians need to have a clearer picture before they plan to spend government funds.
“A lot of wealthier people I know wouldn’t mind paying more taxes,” Dimon said on Tuesday. “But it’s very important for my Democratic friends to also look at the following: They should justify how they spend money.”
Dimon also said successful businesses have helped improve society, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do more.
“I think we have to look at: America was founded on free enterprises; freedom and free enterprises are interchangeable,” he said.
