Sanders responds to former Goldman Sachs CEO: ‘I welcome the hatred of the crooks’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) fired back at former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein after he said he may vote for President Trump if Sanders is the Democrats’ presidential nominee.

“I welcome the hatred of the crooks who destroyed our economy,” Sanders tweeted Friday. 

I welcome the hatred of the crooks who destroyed our economy. https://t.co/aZcdCFpeqt

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 21, 2020

The retort came in response to Blankfein saying he would have trouble supporting Sanders in November.

“I think I might find it harder to vote for Bernie than for Trump,” Blankfein told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday. “The Democrats would be working very hard to find someone who is as divisive as Trump. But with Bernie, they would have succeeded.” 

“I don’t like assassination by categorization. I think it’s un-American. I find that destructive and intemperate,” he added in reference to Sanders’s rebukes of billionaires. “I find that just as subversive of the American character as someone like Trump who denigrates groups of people who he has never met. At least Trump cares about the economy.” 

Sanders has cast his campaign as part of a “political revolution” that will rectify income and other financial inequities in part by raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires. Blankfein is estimated to be worth at least $1 billion. 

The back-and-forth comes amid moderate handwringing that Sanders could build an “insurmountable” lead in electoral delegates by Super Tuesday as he works to build on strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.